


Justice for Fire

by abyss1826, ElementRose



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Caretaking, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Found Family, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Hurt/Comfort, Injury Recovery, Legal Drama, Medical Experimentation, Modern AU, Past Torture, Platonic Cuddling, Recovery, Sick Character, Sickfic, Team as Family, Voltron Lions as Cats, Whump, inhumane treatment, lance becomes a dad at 25, medical references used extensively, mutant AU, power au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-31
Updated: 2018-04-16
Packaged: 2019-03-11 19:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13530813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/abyss1826/pseuds/abyss1826, https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElementRose/pseuds/ElementRose
Summary: When Ms. Allura Prince becomes the head of a company dedicated to scientific research, she uncovers the inhumane reality of what the founder attempted to hide. In order to begin fixing the problem, she hires Lance Sanchez, a pediatrician she knows from college. From there, as their team grows, they begin to untangle and bring light to the case of experiment KE1.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is adapted from an RP done between myself and elementrose. I wrote Keith, Allura, and Katie, while he wrote Lance and the main arc of the story. Others + situational OC's we switched around based on the scenes. It'll take some time to clean things up into a fic format, but I'm hoping to update once a week or more!

Chapter 1

 

KE1 was woken up by the sound of the door unlocking. He stiffened. If the whole door unlocked that meant they were going to make him go somewhere.

He was pulled up and out of bed by the arm, dragged to his feet by one of the guards. The guard forced something over his face that clamped his jaw shut. It was more what was going to happen that they thought he needed his jaw kept shut for that scared him than the thing itself. Gloves that kept his hands from catching fire were forced on and tied together behind him before he was shoved out of the room where they kept him.

He was lead to another white room, an observation room, with a padded chair and windows to another room that couldn't be seen through from his side of the glass. He was pushed into the chair and left there.

The door opened, and someone, a scientist, he had never seen before walked in. His eyes blazed red and he tugged at the restraints binding his arms behind him.

"Hey... easy, easy," the scientist said with a kind, soft voice. He held his hand out, palm up. In his other hand were his clipboard and pen. "It’s okay.”

KE1 pressed his back into the chair. He didn't know this one. He didn't know what to expect. Clipboards meant that the man would be writing something, though. He'd probably be put through some kind of test or examination.

Smoke curled out of the gap between the gloves and his wrist.

"It’s okay, I’m not gonna hurt you." The man smiled gently. "It says you are... KE1, right? My name’s Lance.”

KE1 looked the scientist up and down as he tried to keep his temperature steady. He'd be punished if they thought he was trying to make fire to fight them. He couldn't talk with his jaw wired shut.

"Here... no use having that on, right?" Lance cautiously took a step forward as he pointed at the muzzle.

Smoke curled up from KE1's arms as if his skin was burning, but it wasn't. His molten red eyes flicked from the scientist to the camera in the corner of the ceiling as he wondered why they would have put the muzzle on in the first place only to allow it to come off. If they would really allow him to take it off. The restraints hadn't even been put in place to hold him down to the chair yet.

"I’m not gonna do anything... we can talk and get to know each other, okay? Here, look." Lance held up the clipboard to him before he set it down on the floor and slid it away from himself. "I’m just gonna take it off so you can talk.”

KE1 didn't know what was going on. Few of them ever spoke to him before, and none of them like this. It was always harsh, angry, threatening. He didn't know how to respond to this.

“It’s okay...” Lance said softly, taking the silence as a cue to slowly continue moving forward until he was in front of him.

KE1 sat motionless and tense, staring almost wide-eyed, wrists still straining against the bonds.

“Just relax, okay? I’m not gonna hurt you...” Lance gave a gentle, warm smile as he bent down and slowly removed the muzzle

KE1 squeezed his eyes shut with a grimace.

As the muzzle was removed there was a loud clack and a sharp pain in both his arms as the chair's cold metal restraint clasped around his chest. The sharp edges cut his arms since it was made with having them restrained at the chair's arms in mind, where they were out of the way, not tied behind him where they would make his frame wider.

He hissed through his pointed, shark-like teeth, black smoke rising up from his throat.

"Hey... hey, just relax... I’m sorry." Lance frowned. “It’s regulation.”

KE1 squirmed, trying not to make his movements too obvious as he attempted to move his arms away from being against the cutting restraints. He could, theoretically, melt away at the chair's metal, but then it'd just sedate him and he'd be in more trouble.

"Hey... look, I can’t let you out... but I can see if I can loosen them for you.”

KE1 just stared at him, not understanding why he would want to do that instead of leaving it like this or making it worse. Not understanding why he was talking to him even.

Lance offered a little smile before he left momentarily.

He stepped out into observation room and sighed, closing the door behind him. The rest of his team was there.

"Can you adjust the settings on the chair so the restraints are looser, please?" he asked to no one in particular.

"That isn't safe, sir," the man controlling the medical equipment said.

"I want him to be able to trust me. If anything, I’ll be the only one injured." Lance replied.

"I think you're misunderstanding your role here, and it's ours to make sure you don't get injured at all," the man stated, glaring.

"He’s never gonna cooperate or anything if he doesn’t trust us." he returned the glare and stepped away from the door. "Now, please loosen the restraints.”

"We do not require the experiments to 'cooperate', Dr. Sanchez,” someone else in the room said tiredly. "Just do the physical examination."

As they said this, the other man slowly tightened the bonds, small increments that only the subject would notice.

Lance groaned, clearly irritated.

"Fine," he mumbled, turning and slowly returning to the other room.

KE1 felt the cuts getting deeper as the metal dug into his skin. He tried to breathe shallowly to keep it from getting tighter but it wasn't working.

He stared at the camera and the man behind it chuckled.

"I’m sorry... you won’t be in these conditions for too long, hopefully," Lance explained as he returned. He sat on the floor in front of KE1, far enough away that the other couldn’t kick him.

KE1 noticed the distance. He didn't like this. He'd never liked anything, but he really didn't like when things were unexpected. Things he hadn't dealt with before. This new guy was doing nothing but unexpected things; it put him on edge.

"Can I call you Keith?" Lance asked, smiling a little.

KE1 didn’t say anything, used to being yelled at for responding to 'rhetorical' questions, but he frowned at the doctor, not looking at his face.

"Uh... okay, Keith." he sighed, looking up at him.

Blood began to run down KE1's arms from the tightness of the chest restraint, and he winced. He couldn’t adjust himself anymore, or else he’d slice himself worse. He was already trying not to breathe

"I-is it that bad?" Lance asked, standing to go back to the observation room.

KE1 nodded, barely.

"I’ll get them to loosen it." he said softly before leaving again.

The man at the controls glanced at the other person who spoke to the new guy and rolled his eyes and loosened the restraint slightly before Lance could even open the door.

"Loosen it." Lance said as he opened the door to the room, unaware of the change.

"It is loosened. The thing's just toying with you because you're new."

Lance glared at him before slowly returning to his spot.

"Sorry about that."

KE1's chest rose and fell rapidly, as if he'd almost been drowned, now that he felt he could finally breathe again.

"Are you okay?" Lance asked, frowning as he sat closer than before without realizing.

KE1's head was down, and he didn't pick it up.  He shook it, the indication barely noticeable. He didn't understand the questions, why he was bothering to ask him questions, as if he cared... as if anyone of them had ever cared about how what they did to him felt.

"I’m sorry about that... I’ll get it fixed."

KE1 frowned, but still didn't look up.

"...w-why?" he asked hesitantly, voice almost raspy from under-use.

"Because they suck...?" Lance said, assuming it was obvious.

KE1 wasn't sure if he should be more occupied with the fact that he was answered or the fact that he didn't know what the answer meant.

"I’m gonna get a new team to work with you and I, alright?"

"w-what... what does that m-mean...?" When Keith exhaled, the restraint suddenly tightened again

Lance turned back and looked at the one-way window, glaring.

KE1 grunted in paint at the sharp metal re-entering the wounds it had already made, and the area around the cuts unintentionally grew hotter, making the metal begin to glow

Lance stood and left again to go get the restraints loosened a third time.

As the doctor left, the restraints began to melt without KE1 noticing before it was too late. He jerked up, startled, causing the metal to sever from the chair and fall off of him. The long hard section clanged to the polished cement floor.

"Hey!" Barked the man who controlled the chair, looking back to the monitor after having looked away when Lance walked in. He quickly pressed a button that caused an arm to come up from the side of the chair, bearing a needle aimed right for the subject's shoulder.

KE1 heard the whirr of the arm before he saw it and rolled off the chair the other way, afraid, landing on his back and wrists painfully. He scrambled backward, kicking his legs out, towards the wall furthest from the door and the window.

To everyone's shock, flame burst from his shoulders and formed a second pair of arms while his physical ones were immobilized.

The guard who had dragged the experiment from his cell shoved past Lance and aimed the tranquilizer gun. KE1 was pinned against the wall, standing. He turned and stepped back, trying to delay what he knew was the inevitable, and the guard followed him with his next.

The fire-resistant dart sunk into KE1's back, right above his shoulder blade.

"Hey!" Lance shouted angrily, angrier at the entire situation than anything.

"If you had just left his restraints alone, this wouldn't have happened!" he barked, looking at all of them.

"The muzzle wouldn't have gotten in the way of your examination, you had no reason to remove it," someone stated, saying it in a factual way that shifted the blame onto Lance.

"You still need to get that done."

"It should be easy now," someone chuckled. Others snickered.

KE1 stumbles against the wall, losing consciousness, before colliding face first with the floor, unable to even try to catch himself with his hands tied behind his back.

Lance had to force himself to keep a fairly calm manner as he returned to the observation room.

When he got to KE1, he bent down and sighed.

"I’ll fix it, buddy... don’t you worry," he mumbled to himself as he slowly began his examination.

 

KE1 first felt like he was floating. Then, he was being moved. It was dizzying, disorienting. He groaned, if that small of a noise could be described as a 'groan', and managed to move his head slightly. Both took too much effort for such simple actions

Lance saw and heard both efforts and pulled back from him.

"Keith...? You okay? How are you feeling?" he asked softly.

In the time it took to examine him, Lance had propped him against the wall.

KE1 cracked his eyes open a fraction and tried to move again, only managing to start sliding sideways with a startled squeak.

Lance was quick to help sit him back up.

 "Careful... how do you feel?" he mumbled, brushing the hair from the other's eyes.

 "Mmm..." He hummed tiredly, but he wasn’t sure it came out the way he wanted. His red eyes fluttered shut again.

"Alright... just relax... some guards are gonna bring you back, okay?"

He didn’t like that, but there was not much he could do to convey that fact and everything sounded too far away.

His head fell against Lance’s shoulder.

"Just rest easy... I’m gonna fix this." Lance said softly, smiling a little.

The guards eventually came and wheeled KE1 away to his room on a squeak cot.

They then dumped him on his bed, all but tossing him onto the worn out spring mattress.

Lance sighed, retreating slowly to his office where he was to do his work.

Instead of that, he laid his head on his desk, pulled his phone out, and began to text the new director.

 

LANCE:           _yeah, I need a new team._

 

Allura had her head in her hands, stressed beyond measure reading everything the former director, a cruel, cruel man, hadn't managed to erase that she would need to correct when her phone buzzed.

It was Dr. Sanchez, an old friend of hers from college whose compassion, she hoped, would be able to endure this place. She read the message and grimaced, feeling a new headache coming.

 

ALLURA:         _What happened? It's not even lunch yet._

LANCE:           _theyre a bunch of assholes, both to me and my mutant. I need a new team, I can help._

ALLURA:         _What did they do?!_

LANCE:           _he was injured with the restraints, and that caused him to panic and try to escape. at least, thats what im sure happened. and also theyre assholes._

ALLURA:         _I'll work on it, but I might have to root out a couple other things first. I'm sure you'll believe me, the person they just took down was. Not. A nice man. Or as good at covering his tracks as he thought he was._

LANCE:           _ill help look for a team. I just need access to the applicant files._

ALLURA:         _I'll open that up for you. Just give me a couple minutes._

LANCE:           _thanks, Allura. :))_

ALLURA:         _No problem, thanks for taking such a hard job._

LANCE:           _yeah, no problem! do you have time for lunch at all today?_

ALLURA:         _No, I'll have to plan out how I'm going to go through all of this, and I want to do it fast so I can start putting my own things into place, so I might be eating lunch at my desk for a week or two…_

LANCE:           _want me to come help?_

ALLURA:         _If you have time, sure!_

LANCE: _alright, ill come by during my break then! are you doing okay with all of it tho??_

ALLURA:         _Yeah. I'll be glad when it's over but even gladder to have made changes to some of this._

LANCE:           _yeah, really. I can help with some stuff if you want????_

ALLURA:         _You should probably look through more files on your mutant since you're done meeting him, I can't distract you from your job!_

LANCE:           _lol its fine Allura, your job is kinda more important at the moment. id rather help you than wait for him to warm up to me for the moment_

ALLURA:         _Okay. Just for lunch though! Go do your job!_

LANCE:           _this isnt college anymore, Allura lol_

ALLURA:         _I didn't hire you to text me, Dr. Sanchez_

LANCE:           _fine, fine. see you at lunch, then!_

ALLURA:         _See you, good luck_

LANCE:           _you too!_

 

Lance sighed and set his phone down. He rolled over to the other side of his desk to his computer. He began to sift through the files on it

 

Keith was still on the bare mattress, out cold due to the effects of the sedative. The one thin, worn blanket he had had fallen to the cold tile floor.

The walls of his cell were cement bricks, and there were one small metal table and metal stool aside from the bed. A door suggested a bathroom, which also had a camera in it, and the other door had a hatch at the bottom to push food through. It was steel, solid. No way to see out, and no windows in the whole room either. There wasn't a light switch. The bright, fluorescent lighting was controlled from the outside.

Lance caught sight of the monitor with the live feed and sighed. In his mind, he was already sorting through ideas to help him

As the drug wore off KE1's sleep went from dreamless to fitful.

Small bursts of flame developed rapidly across his exposed skin before extinguishing and cropping up somewhere else; responding to a nightmare that could have just been a memory. KE1 curled in on himself until he was a small, shaking, sporadically burning ball.

“Umm, sh-shit!” Lance shouted, panicked, not understanding the situation. He looked around, trying to think of anything he could do.

KE1'S face was twisted into a grimace, tears etching their way down his cheeks from the corners of his scrunched eyes.

Lance hurriedly stood and used his intercom to talk to the guards through their walkie talkie devices.

"Go check on him." he blurted.

"Why?" one of the guards asked. They too could see the cell from the camera monitor station

“Are you stupid?” Lance growled, carefully watching the monitor.

"He'll wake himself up eventually. Nothing in the room is flammable, you don't need to worry," the other one answered, not considering that the doctor might be concerned about KE1.

"I don’t care that the room isn’t fucking flammable, go check on him and wake him up!"

"That thing's dangerous," the guard protested, "you want us cooked alive?!"

"It'll wake up on its own anyway," the other one added.

“He not an it!”

Lance angrily and hurriedly left his office and began to head to KE1s cell, more concerned about the other rather than himself.

The guards saw him rushing in the hallway and yelled for him to stop, no, it'd kill him.

"If you don’t do it, I will” he shouted back for them.

"You're acting against protocol, we can't be held responsible for what will happen," one of them said sternly.

"Fuck protocol! Then I’ll be held responsible!"

The guards sighed and prepared to have to sedate the mutant again.

Lance quickly entered the cell, now more than anxious and trying to find a way to calm KE1 without managing to burn himself.

KE1 was still huddled in a ball on the bare mattress, fire-resistant blanket in a heap on the floor.

Lance walked over and took the blanket. He hesitated for a moment, frowning before he draped it cautiously over the other.

KE1's eyes shot open, glowing like molten glass. His whole body tensed and froze under the sudden contact. Sparks came out with his short breaths.

Lance jumped a little at the suddenness.

After a moment, he spoke.

"Keith... you okay...?"

His eyes were steaming, face too hot for tears to fall. He slowly shook his head, curling in on himself further, shoulders hunched.

"C-can I sit...? If I even can...?" Lance mumbled, looking at the bed.

KE1 didn't do anything, he was already as small as he could be on the bed, and he couldn't understand why the doctor was acting like this

"Are you alright...? What happened?"

"I-I had a nightmare... " He said eventually in a small voice, uncertain.

"What was it about...?"

"Everything."

"What... happened in it...?"

"They... locked me in the freezer... again..."

Lance went quiet for a minute, more than shocked.

"I... I promise, that will never happen to you ever again..." he mumbled, looking at the other.

Keith frowned. He didn't know what a promise was.

"Okay...? I want you to trust me eventually... maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow... but I want you to be able to comfortably trust me."

"I don't know what you mean."

"What are you confused on...?"

"What do you mean by 'trust' you... I don’t know what promise means..."

"I-I... a promise is something that you can never break... otherwise it’s not a promise. When I said that I promise to protect you, it means I have to protect you."

KE1 frowned.

"I don't know what that means either.” it felt weird to talk.

"What do you mean...?"

"You said you'd protect me...?"

"I’m not gonna let them hurt you anymore... you're safe with me.

"But..."

 "What...?"

"Why?" and what would happen then? All they did was hurt him. If they weren’t doing that then what was his point?

"Because I care... you shouldn’t be hurt like this."

"Why... would you care…? No one else cares..."

"Because I’m different, I guess."

Keith was silent. Slowly his flame was dying down.

"I’m gonna help you... and I want you to not be afraid of me. That’s trust... not being afraid of someone, believing that I will help you."

"Why do you want to help...?”

"Because it’s cruel, and I don’t like seeing people get hurt."

KE1 said nothing. If the doctor didn't do what he was used to, then what would happen to him instead?

"Are you okay...? We can take it slow."

"What will they do then..?” KE1 asked, barely audible.

"I’m gonna get a new team to work with you... we're gonna make sure you're cared for and safe. The new director is gonna change things here, she’s smart and really cool..." Lance let a fond smile show, more platonic and familial than anything.

"But what will happen then?"

"What do you mean? With the experiments?"

"...yeah..."

"Were gonna make sure that they don’t hurt you..."

But all of them hurt him. If they couldn't do what they wanted they didn't need him... they'd just leave him to die…

"Is that okay...? I’m gonna help the director look for a new team."

"t-they won’t need me," he stuttered.

"Yes we will." Lance gave a soft smile.

"But if they can't do things they don't need me," he was smoking again.

"Yes we will. Can you give me a chance please...?"

KE1 didn't know what to say, so he stopped talking. He pressed his face into the rough mattress.

"Well get you a better living space... well take care of you how you should be taken care of, okay?"

He nodded slightly, not sure what that would mean. He didn't like how things were changing all of a sudden.

"We’ll give you a break from experiments for a while I look for a better team."

 "Oh... “He wasn't sure what would happen then, usually there would be an experiment and he'd spend the rest of the day recovering until the next one.

"Is that okay?" Lance gave another smile.

KE1 nodded into the mattress shakily.

"Are you okay...? I know it’s probably a big change, sorry..."

"I don't know," he said in a small voice

"It’s okay... do you want me to leave?"

KE1 shook his head slowly, not sure why, not looking at him either.

"Okay" Lance smiled gently. " I can stay for a bit before I have my lunch break. Do you want me to come back after?"

"If you want..." He was so unused to choices

“Okay.” Lance gave a little smile. “Do you have any questions or ask? Or anything you're curious about...?”

KE1 shook his head. He didn't even know what he would ask.

"Okay. Are you feeling tired at all?"

KE1 nodded. He was always out of it for a while after... something like that…

"Do you wanna go back to sleep? And I’ll be right here if you need me."

"O-okay..."

Lance gave a soft smile and sighed. He was more than worried for Keith, and he was calmly panicking about how he was going to change his staff so quickly. for the moment, however, he wanted to just relax and help.

KE1 shifted so his back was snug against the wall and he could see the door, tucking himself under the blanket.

"Sleep well." Lance mumbled, smiling.

KE1 stared at him until he left.

Once Lance was gone and the cell door was carefully closed, he sighed and began to slowly head to get lunch and go to Allura’s office.

"Hello Dr. Sanchez," Allura greeted, jokingly formal, when he opened the door.

"Shut up," Lance chuckled, walking in and sitting in the seat across from the desk. "How is it so far?"

"Interesting. Some files I've dug up seem to be damaged or encrypted, I'll have to see I can hire Katie to work on them."

"Katie?" Lance repeated.

"Holt, Matt's little Sister? She's in college now."

“Really? Damn...”

Allura nodded, pulling a thermos full of soup out of her desk for lunch.

“May I look through the applications?” Lance asked, raising a brow.

"Oh, yes, absolutely. Do you want me to print them now, or email them to you?

“Can you print them please?”

"Sure." She printed the ones she had been considering and handed them to Lance.

Lance slowly began to read through the application forms.

"Those are the ones I've been considering," she told him, "I'll send you the folder with the discards in case you want to see them yourself, and I just sent the ones I haven't looked at yet."

Lance went through all the application forms and chose one from the whole group.

"Him."

Allura leaned over to look at the application.

"Tsuyoshi Garett. I want him,” insisted Lance.

"I'll contact him." She smiled.

"Thanks, I want him in for an interview."

"Should we interview him individually?"

"Hmm... maybe we both should...? Together at the same time?"

She nodded, "That would be quicker. I'll get to emailing him now."

She put her hand out for the application so she could get his email address.

Lance handed it to her and smiled.

"I like the mutant," he said softly, smiling.

"What's he like?" she asked, not looking up from the email she was writing.

"He… ah, I can't gather much from him now, but… he has trust issues, which is expected. He seems to not understand much, he didn't know what a promise was or what trust meant. He gets nightmares... he seems to have trauma and stress, anxiety..."

Allura pursed her lips grimly.  "So how did the first couple hours go? You didn't give much detail earlier. ",

"Uh... I wanted the restraints loosened because I wanted him to trust me. The team tightened them instead, and he was injured in the process. I think he freaked out and got loose, and then they had to tranq him... “Lance sighed."

"Oh my goodness, " Allura exclaimed.  "That's awful. Why did they restrain him? "",

"It’s normal around here, I guess... it was to keep him from trying to attack anyone. He had a muzzle on at first, but I took that off him."

"Well, I'll be changing things soon. Has he had a history of attacking people, or have you not gone through all his files yet? "",

"I haven't really had a chance to go through the files yet, no.”

"She nodded and sent the email.  "Hopefully you'll have a new technician soon at least. I guess I’ll be firing a few people for him to replace," she sighed.”

"yeah... how soon can you get Katie started? "",

"As soon as she can come here. I'll have to work her hours around her classes but I'm sure it'll work. "",

"Okay...” Lance nodded gently, trying to also figure everything out."

"Do you think I should get some sort of counselor?" she asked."

"Yeah! That would be good for them. "Lance smiled.

"Alright." she smiled.  "I'll put something out." Their lunch break would be up soon.,

"Thanks, Allura. Need me to help with anything?”

"Keep a running list of things that should be changed?" she suggested, only half joking."

"I could do that." he chuckled, grabbing a notepad from her desk."

"Thanks. You should probably get back to your mutant,” she teased lightly.",

"Ah, geez... he's asleep, I think. I kind of wanna read over his records."

"She nodded.  "You do that then," she said, tense, apprehensive of what might end up being in there."

"I’m not gonna learn anything if I don’t look through the records, even if they’re biased. It’s a start at least..."

"Yeah... good luck!"

"You too, Allura." Lance smiled and stood."

"Text me if anything... drastic happens? "",

"Yeah, I will. " he nodded. After exchanging goodbyes, Lance left and returned to his own office. He sat at his desk and began to search the computer for ke1s files. He eventually found them and opened them."

Files were in folders by category. Incident Reports was the first one, and files dated back to when the mutant was first created. KE1 was 15, a little over ten years younger than Lance. Reports slowly stacked up as KE1 got older, going from minor burns while the infant cried for attention, to someone being bitten by him while he was a child, to what was probably the worst incident when Lance would have been in college. KE1 had blown up the exam room (context of the experiment seeming to have been deleted), fatally injuring the doctor and severely wounding those who had been in the tech room attached.

Through reading the long files, Lance didn't even notice he was tearing up until he was finished. He rubbed away the tears with the heel of his hand and continued reading. It has to be done, I have to know about him, he told himself,

Then there was the Mutations folder, filled with files on 'skill developments', with citations to the experiments the developments had become apparent during. The Pyrokinesis file was extensive, it being the first skill to show itself, it's most recent use seeming to be the ability to create solid constructs out of flame alone, which KE1 had demonstrated with the second pair of arms he had used to crawl away while his hands were tied behind his back. The regeneration file was far more recent, however, and had far more gruesome implications. It started with teeth growing back, within a week's time at most, which lead to experiments on how quickly cuts would heal, if there was a limit to the healing ability as far as depth of width of a cut, if the muscle would repair itself in record time as well. If bone would. If bone could grow back if they removed a chunk of it. How quickly would his blood levels return to normal. Then, several years ago, they delved into the organs, starting with the appendix. When it grew back they experimented with a kidney. It was extremely taxing on the mutant's body to regrow things like they were making it do, causing the recovery period to be worse on it than it was for humans. Then they experimented on how well his cells could be grafted, accepted by others' bodies. It was the previous Doctor's main fascination, this aspect was. That seemed to be the end of the files.

Lance was in near silent tears by the end of it. His hand was over his mouth, and the other was shakily on the mouse. Tiny whimpering noises were drawn from him, and he sniffed. His breaths were hitched. He pushed his rolling chair slowly away from the computer and rested his elbows on his thighs. He bent over and buried his face in his hands. He couldn’t even try to imagine the visuals of the experiments without starting to cry more."

"Allura texted Lance after getting two emails back. Mr. Garrett will be able to be interviewed Wednesday, and Pidge should be able to take a look at some of these files around 5. How are your files looking?"

Lance grabbed his phone, trembling. **nnpt si giod**

Allura frowned at the message for a minute, deciphering. **what is it?**

            **a lpt**

**do you need to call me? Are you okay?**

**ikl br fune**

**You're typing like you're not going to be fine, Lance.**

**im judt shakinh im fine**

**"okay :   nJust call me I you need to talk about it.**

**thakns**

**I'm sure you'll fix whatever it is**

**i camt fux thsi**

**well, what ever it is won't be happening anymore with you around, and I know you'll do your best to help him heal from what's already happened. I believe in you!**

**thankd Allura**

**no problem.** She went back to working.

Lance shakily set his phone down on his desk and began to slowly try to calm down. He rubbed at his eyes and sniffed. “

I’m never gonna get through this if I’m always crying,” he sighed, his breaths still hitching. He straightened up and rolled himself back to the desk. He exited out of all of the files.”

 

A few days later, Tsuyoshi was hired.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> KE1 meets Hunk and gets closer to Lance.

KE1 was woken up by the sound of the food hatch in the door opening. He yawned and stood up, walking over and picking it up off the floor. It was a bowl of white mush again and a plastic cup of something orange with chewy things in it. He set it on the table and sat down on the hard metal stool to eat. Nothing had happened since the new doctor showed up. It made him anxious about what would once things went back to normal. The last one cut him open a lot. He wondered if this one would too, or if he'd start something else.

The door opened fully, and Lance slowly walked in. "good morning." he smiled.

KE1 tensed as the door opened, looking wide eyed at the person who came in. Oh. It was just the new doctor. What was he going to do?

"You okay?" he asked, raising a brow as the smile faded.

"Sure?"

Lance caught sight of the contents of the bowl and made a face of disgust. "What the hell is that?”

KE1 stared at it and lifted the spoon, letting it glop thickly back into the bowl. "Wake-up food?"

"That’s disgusting and I’m changing that," Lance responded bluntly. "Can I give you something else instead?"

"Sure," KE1 said nervously, not knowing what to expect.

Lance smiled a little, and he left for a moment with the door closed but not locked. When he returned, he had a granola bar in his hand.

KE1 stared at the thing in the doctor's hand.

Lance unwrapped some of it and held it out for ke1 to take. "Here."

Ke1 took it and cautiously put it in his mouth. The crunch startled him and it stuck in his sharp teeth.

"How is it? Does it taste good?” he asked, smiling hopefully.

He nodded slowly. It was different.

Lance smiled more at the more positive response. "That’s good. I can bring you one every day, is that okay?”

"Y-yeah...” Doctors always did what they wanted, it was weird to be asked with what he was okay with.

"Okay." he smiled happily. "How did you sleep?"

KE1 shrugged. He always slept the same.

"Okay... are you sore or anything? Any headaches, stomach pains...?”

He lifted the sleeves to show the white bandages over the gashes left from the restraints on his arms, which still hurt, and his wrists were bruised from when he fell backwards onto them. His shoulder was sore where the dart hit him. He showed all this instead of saying anything.

"I see... it should take a bit for them to heal, but you’ll be okay." Lance smiled softly.

KE1 nodded. "Are you... doing anything?" he asked hesitantly.

"What do you mean?" Lance asked, cocking a brow.

"...today?"

"Am I doing anything...? I’m gonna introduce you to the new mechanic, I’m gonna work on some files... I’m gonna eat lunch..."

"Experiments?"

"Nope. We’re still trying to figure what we wanna start with... nothing bad, I promise." Lance smiled softly.

"Okay..."

Lance gave a bigger smile. "Do you want me to stay or leave?"

"I don't know...“ It’s not like he had anything to do anyway.

Lance nodded. "Okay.”

"So... why is everyone changing?" he asked, since Lance was new, and now there was another new person.

“Because we're getting nicer, better people,” Lance smiled. “They’re not gonna hurt you on purpose anymore.”

"What will they do then?" He asked, confused.

“They’re gonna help make sure you're safe and healthy while still testing on you. It’ll be okay.”

"But that means they'll still be hurting me, you just said they would do that anymore!” Because testing always hurt.

“No, were gonna make sure we don’t hurt you when we’re testing.”

KE1 clenched his jaw, grinding his teeth together slightly, not looking at the doctor. It sounded like a lie.

“It’ll be okay,” Lance smiled softly.

KE1 didn't really believe him, but he kept his face blank.

"Is there anything else you wanna ask about?"

"Why are you being nice to me?"

"Because I think it’s important to be nice to people. Being mean doesn't get you anywhere, it just makes people hate you." 

"I'm not 'people', though."

"Yes you are, you're a person like everyone else. You’re just special, and that makes you cool."

"That wasn't true, though. He was a mutant, and that's why they did what they did to him. He only mattered for research. KE1 didn't say anything, or look up from the bowl."

"Wh-what? Did I say something that hurt offended you...? I’m sorry..." Lance frowned and looked at him.

"It’s nothing.”

"Are you sure...? You can tell me, you know."

"It’s nothing."

“Okay, I just wanna make sure...” Lance sighed a little. “Do you want me to leave...?”

KE1 shrugged. "If you want to."

“Okay. You’ll meet the new mechanic later on today, okay?”

KE1 nodded.

Lance smiled a little. “I’ll see you later then.”

"Okay"

Lance left the room, locking half the locks before he left to go meet Tsuyoshi.

"Hey Lance," Tsuyoshi greeted with a wave. He was reading the instruction manual on how to work the chair in the exam room.

"Hey, welcome to the job." Lance replied, smiling happily.

"Thanks," he grinned. "So... there's some, interesting functions? Here? Should I mark things we should disable?”

"Yeah, yeah, that'd be great." Lance nodded vigorously. "It’s great to have you on the team!"

"Thanks, it's good to be changing things."

"Yeah... so, would you be okay with meeting the mutant later? I wanna build trust between him and our team."

"Sure! What's he like?"

"He’s a bit hesitant at the moment... he’s not really understanding all the adjustments just yet, but well get him there eventually. We just have to start small." Lance explained. He was wearing a hopeful smile.

Hunk nodded. "Do you think he'll like me?" he asks nervously.

"He’ll need to get used to you, but he will. He isn’t even close to being used to me yet, I don’t think."

"Oh. Does he... does he talk?"

"Yeah, he talks. I just don’t think he trusts me at all yet."

"I don't blame him, judging by what that chair was set up for you are replacing some crazy people..."

"Tell me about it, man." Lance chuckled softly, trying to make light of the very dark situation.

"Do you... do you know what happened? “He asked cautiously.

"A... a lot... I’ll... I’ll let you read the files when you have a bit..."

Hunk nodded, grimly. "When do you think I should meet him?"

"You can meet him whenever you feel comfortable."

"When do you think he'd be okay with," Hunk asked awkwardly, running a hand through his hair.

Lance chuckled. "I usually just pop in whenever. You can come with me then."

"Okay."

"So... did you work somewhere before this?"

"Yeah, I helped operate with and do checkups on Hospital tech, surgical aids that doctors use now and stuff like that."

"Really? Impressive. "Lance chuckled gently."

"Thanks. What about you?"

"I was a pediatrician for a while."

"That’s a bit of a jump, from kids check-ups to this," Hunk chuckled.

Lance laughed softly. "Yeah... the director wanted help, and as a friend, I had trouble saying no."

"Where do you know her from?"

"We attended college together."

"Oh, cool."

"Mhm." they soon reached ke1s cell, and Lance turned to Hunk. "Don’t... just be slow with him," he warned.

Hunk nodded determinedly.

 

Lance unlocked and opened the door slowly. "Keith...?" he called softly.

KE1 was startled stiff, sitting cross-legged on top of the table, doodling little geometric designs into the metal top with soot off his finger. He quickly tried to rub the markings away with his palm before he could get in trouble.

“What’s that? I... could give you some paper and a marker to draw if you want.” Lance offered gently, smiling.

KE1 wasn’t completely sure what that meant, so he just stared at the doctor and the broad man behind him with his red eyes.

“This is Tsuyoshi Garrett, he’ll be part of the new team,” Lance explained, smiling and stepping aside for Hunk to enter.

“Hi.” Hunk stepped forward and smiled. He offered a little wave.

"Hi," KE1 mimicked slowly, thinking that this was probably the one the doctor mentioned earlier.

"I’m Tsuyoshi, but you can call me Hunk. You are...?"

"K E one."

"He hasn't been given a real name?" Hunk turned to Lance, who shook his head.

"I call him Keith, and he hasn't opposed it yet, so..." Hunk nodded and turned back.

"Can I call you Keith?"

KE1 shrugged. "The doctor does..." And the doctors always did what they wanted.

"You can call me Lance, Keith. " Lance suggested gently. "Are you more comfortable with Keith or ke1?"

"KE1 looked down and anxiously watched the doodle smear off the table, not knowing what to say, which answer was the wrong one.

"There are no wrong answers, Keith... it’s just how you feel." Lance said, smiling warmly.

KE1 frowned with uncertainty. "...I don't know..." He eventually said quietly.

"Okay, just take your time." Hunk said, sharing the same smile as Lance.

KE1 hunched over more slightly, still rubbing at a part of the table despite thinking there probably wasn’t any soot left under his hand. He didn't want to lose his excuse to not look at them.

"Do you want us to leave?" he offered, raising a brow.

"I don’t know," he said, irritated. No one ever asked him things like this. That wasn't how things went.

“Okay, okay. Just relax.” Lance said softly. “We’re sorry.”

He scowled, not knowing what the doctor meant.

“Do you wanna see the files now...?” Lance whispered softly to Hunk, sighing.

"Sure," Hunk whispered back, glancing with a concerned look at Keith."

“We're gonna go, okay? We can come back later if you want,” Lance explained to ke1, giving a gentle smile.

"Kay." They'd come back regardless, he figured.

Lance waved Hunk to follow him out as he began to leave.

Hunk smiled at KE1 and said bye to him before following Lance.

“Just a warning... the files are very heavy... I won’t be reading them with you.” Lance mumbled.

Hunk nodded grimly.

Lance nodded softly, and they reached his office. He slowly brought him in and sat on the outside of the desk. He gestured for Hunk to take his chair.

Hunk sat down.

Lance sighed and fidgeted as he waited for Hunk to read.

Hunk grew nauseated and pale as he read through the folder.

The other noticed and sighed. "That’s why I’m so desperate to save him..." he mumbled quietly, his eyes staring down into his lap.

"Well... not continuing any of this is... a start," Hunk shuddered, closing the files.

"Yeah... de-definitely."

"I think we should give him a bigger room, with... I don't know, things that make it seem like someone's supposed to live there...? That looked really uncomfortable."

"Yeah, I-I was thinking-- I was thinking of that... we'll need to collect money and renovate..."

"Well I'm sure we'll be saving money since we won't be funding this- " he gestured to the computer, "-there'll probably be enough put aside to do something within a couple months, probably, if there aren't savings from the last director."

"Hopefully..." Lance rubbed his eyes that had started to water again. "I’m ready to fix this..."

Hunk stood and put a comforting hand on Lance's shoulder. "We all are. There's plenty of things we can improve around him without him having to open up that will help him, you have a lot of time to get him to trust you."

"Lance nodded softly and sniffed a little. He sighed. "yeah, y-you're right."

"Should we make a list for Allura? So she knows?"

"Yeah..."

"How many lists are there already?"

"I’m not sure... I think she might have a general list. maybe we could write specific lists..."

"Like a 'room' list, or a... 'Quality of life'?" he suggested.

"Perhaps..."

"Hunk pulled a small notepad out of one of his pockets along with a pen. "Rough draft?"

"Yeah... renovation of rooms... better meals... homier rooms..."

Hunk wrote them down. "What are they feeding him?" he asked with a frown.

"Some kind of inedible shit..."

"Hunk scowled. "I'll check out the kitchen on my break."

"Okay." Lance nodded gently."

"Well I should go figure out the other machines in the observation room," Hunk said, putting the notepad on Lance's desk. "I'll be there if you need me." He waved and left."

Lance nodded softly. “Okay...”

Do you have any idea where they would have been getting human organs from? Allura texted.

Lance looked down at the text on his phone and froze.

Where did you read about that?

Katie recovered a deleted encrypted file that was keeping track of some finances. They were selling, but there are no hints to where they were getting them from. I wanted to ask before I started... Making assumptions...

You’ll need to read Keith's files...

The context of that statement really is not encouraging

It’s not supposed to be.

I'll read it at some point, but they were his?

Yes...

Alright.

Come take a look when you have the chance.

I will.

Lance sighed and set his phone down. How was he going to help fix all this...? How was he going to help Keith heal?

 

KE1 woke up bleary eyes and with an achy head. His throat hurt, and he felt cold. He curled into a ball, blanket twisted around him, and fell back into an uncomfortable sleep.

Lance walked in not much later with a tray of breakfast food in his hands. "Keith…?"

KE1 wasn't roused. He was flushed pink, the blanket pulled over half his face.

"Keith?" Lance called again.

KE1 woke up slightly with a quiet groan.

"You okay?" he asked, setting the tray down on the table.

KE1 coughed painfully, black smoke and orange sparks bursting out of his lungs.

"H-hold on." Lance raised a finger and left the room, leaving the door open before returning with a thermometer.

KE1 just closed his eyes when Lance left.

"Keith... can you sit up...?" Lance asked, walking over and sitting on the bed.

"Mm?" his half-lidded eyes looked unfocused.

"Sit up, Keith... I need to see if you're sick."

KE1 sat up slowly, coughing again.

"Stick your tongue up, like this," Lance explained, showing Keith how to position his tongue to take his temperature.

KE1 did as he was told.

I’m just gonna see if you're sick, don't worry..." he mumbled, slowly sticking the thermometer under his tongue.

KE1 kept his tongue up since that was what he was told to do

Now put it down...

KE1 put his tongue down. When it beeped his temperature was 106 degrees.

Lance admittedly freaked out a bit when he took the thermometer out and read the temperature. "I-I-" Lance hurriedly grabbed his phone and began to text Allura.

I think he’s gonna die????"

"What?!

KE1 closed his eyes again, leaning his aching head back against the wall.

hIS TEMP IS 106??????? Lance didn't hesitate to text Hunk as well to bring down some ice packs and cold cloths.

KE1 started nodding off again.

Are there recordings of his natural temperature? Could it naturally be high since he creates fire? She texted hopefully. Hunk ran in after grabbing bags of ice from the kitchen.

"I... didn't think of that. Lance sighed, his heart had been pounding.

Try to find records once you think it's safe to leave him alone.

He looked over at Keith and lowered his head. He looked back up when Hunk entered. "I think he just needs a little." he said softly.

Hunk handed one of the bags along with a washcloth to put under it.

"Thanks..." Lance mumbled, carefully placing the padded ice bag on Keith in hopes of cooling him down. He had suspicions that he couldn't cool him down too much or that would hurt him more.

KE1 winced at the coldness, opening his eyes again and looking around.

"It’s okay... just relax." Lance said softly, moving back on the bed so he could sit better. "How do you feel...?"

"...bad..." his voice sounded like it was going.

"Okay..." Lance sighed. "Just rest, okay...?"

"K," he said, almost a whisper, trying to lay back down"

Lance slowly helped him lay back down and frowned. "I’ll be back later with something to help you get better."

KE1 sniffled and nodded, pulling up the blanket.

Lance gently moved ke1s hair from his eyes before he stood. “See you later...”

KE1 unknowingly leaned into the contact.

Lance smiled a little. "Get some rest, okay…?"

"mhm..."

Lance smiled and slowly and quietly left.

Hunk followed him and closed the door quietly.

"We need to check his normal health conditions in the files."

"Yeah."

Lance slowly walked up to his office and plopped down in his chair. He began to search for his files.

Eventually, the information was found in a temperature experiment, which studied what temperatures Ke1 could withstand; mostly of the cold before heat regulation used up all his energy. Heat wise though, he could withstand 120 degrees of heat that wasn't his own fire."

"O-okay..." Lance mumbled, sighing at the information. "We know what he's okay with now..."

"It still seems like he's being affected by a fever though," Hunk stated, texting the new information to Allura.

"Yeah... but that's internal and slowing his body down..."

"True."

"Well bring him medicine later... hopefully, he won't reject it..."

"Yeah, that wouldn't be good. I'll make sure there's soup for him when he feels up to eating. Do you think he'd like tea?"

"We can try. From what I imagine, he hasn't tried much."

"Yeah. When do you want to wake him up for medicine?"

"Soon..."

"Would now be good since he probably hasn't been sleeping long yet?"

"Hmm... sure."

"Okay. I'll go check on the kitchen then." Hunk left with a wave.

Lance nodded and sighed, brushing his hair away from his face.

KE1 slept on his side, drooling a little since he had to breathe with his mouth open; his sinuses too clogged.

When Lance walked in quietly with the medicine, he chuckled at him. He walked over and sat gingerly on the bed, giving him another few moments before he softly shook him. "Keith..."

Ke1 Woke up and froze before realizing it was Lance and not a guard about to drag him onto the floor for not getting up fast enough.

"I have some medicine and water for you." he said softly."

"Oh..." He didn't like medicine…

"It’s good medicine, it'll help you." Lance insisted. "Can you sit up for me please...?"

KE1 sat up again.

"Drink this stuff. Its gross, but then you get water after. It’s gonna help you get better." he explained, slowly handing him the cup.

"Oh." He had been expecting an injection. He drank it and it was bad. His whole face screwed up.

Lance began to laugh. "I didn't miss seeing that face from people... drink the water, it'll help with the taste. It’ll help it go away."

KE1 took the glass and drank the water in a single, gigantic gulp before looking back at Lance. "That was bad," he said hoarsely."

"How the hell...?" Lance mumbled, raising an eyebrow in concern. He tried to ignore it. "Yeah, I used to get told that all the time... but it’s important if you wanna get better."

"Now what."

"Well... when I got sick, my parents just had me rest a lot. So... sleep more, I guess."

"Yo-your what?" KE1 asked confused.

"m-my parents?"

"What’s a ‘parents,’?”

"I-I... you're kidding, r-right...?"

KE1's face fell from confused to blank, and he stopped looking at Lance. "Never mind."

"y-you don't know what parents are...?”

"Am I supposed to?" KE1 asked softly, hands fidgeting with the blanket bunched up in his lap.

"I-I... oh, buddy..." Lance sighed shakily. This kid has nothing at all. Where the hell did he come from...?

KE1 was starting to get upset. He didn't like not knowing things that the new people were assuming he would. He hated it.

"parents... usually are the people who take care of you... they make sure you eat and sleep, and they help you when you need it…”

"So... Like, the doctors?" He asked slowly, frowning.

"Oh god... no, no, no... They were not good... they were very bad, they hurt you..."

"Does everyone else have parents?"

"N-not everyone..."

KE1 stayed quiet, staring at the blanket in his lap, thinking that this was just another thing that made him not human, added to the list of everything else wrong with him.

"It’s okay, Keith... none of this is your fault... it's just a big mistake with things that need fixing..." Lance sighed softly, moving over to comfort him. He wrapped an arm gently around him.

KE1 sniffled, from being sick or from being upset he didn't know. But he was tired, and the contact was unexpectedly...fine... He slowly leaned into it without realizing, eyes drifting shut

Lance was surprised for a moment before he smiled warmly. He rubbed his hand slowly up and down Keith's forearm. "It’s okay..."

His head dropped onto Lance's shoulder as he began to doze off.

Lance looked over, surprised. “Keith?”

"Mm?" He hummed sleepily.

“Are you tired?” he chuckled.

"Mhm…”

“Do you want me to leave...?”

"...no...” KE1 didn't know why, but the contact felt nice... He didn't really want it to stop.

“Okay,” Lance smiled and pulled ke1 closer into him.

KE1 sighed contently, tucking his head under Lance's chin before dozing off again.

He giggled quietly. “Goodnight...” he mumbled, petting his hair.

KE1 nuzzled in closer in his sleep. 

How's he doing? Did he take the medicine? Hunk texted.

lance took out his phone. he’s okay, I think. he took the medicine and now I can't move, he’s asleep.

what do you mean you can't move?

he’s asleep on me, I can't move.

omg send a picture

Lance chuckled and carefully took a picture. Once he got a cute one, he sent it.

that's the most precious thing I've ever seen and I'm sending it to Allura.

nO DONT SEND IT TO HER SHELL NEVER LEAVE ME ALONE

oops

Soon he got another text from Allura.

WOW

NOOOO lance texted both.

I'm printing that and framing it and maybe sending it to the people I just fired

as proof

that he's fine

PLEASE DO NOT

well I am framing it at the very least

You’re a bully

this is what you're getting for Christmas now

NO

YES

PLEASE

:)

ALLURA DON'T YOU LOVE ME

I'm doing this because I love you

YOU ARE DOING IT BECAUSE YOU DON'T LOVE ME

I'm documenting history

please don't Allura

I won't send it to people

please don't

I won't! It's great that he's starting to warm up to you though, you've been working really hard for that.

yeah, I’m proud. He’s doing really well. Lance looked down at Keith and smiled warmly.

How do you think he got sick? None of us have been sick lately.

Lance’s face dropped. Might’ve been me...?

How?

my family's been sick, it might have transferred through me. Sorry.

okay. we'll have to pay more attention to sanitation then, he probably doesn't have that great of an immune system. Is he vaccinated at all?

I’ll have Hunk check the files. Lance then texted Hunk, directing him towards the health files.

Okay. Hunk went through them I'm not finding anything that says he has been, so I'm assuming no. Your pediatrician experience is really gonna be coming in handy here...

he hasn't, Lance texted Allura. He sighed.

Could you plan out all the vaccinations he needs then when you're free? Allura asked.

yeah, I know the first one he can take. I can do it while he’s asleep so he won't complain.

Okay.

Lance texted Allura a certain vaccination he needed. it should be around here, I’ve seen it.

I'll have it sent to your office

no, bring it to Keith’s cell.

Oh, okay. It should only take a couple minutes.

thanks

A new, nervous looking intern knocked and slowly opened the door a crack and peaked in, holding the box with the vaccine in it.

Lance smiled softly. “Do you have it?” he asked, not able to see it yet.

"Y-yeah," the intern held it up, slowly walking through the door. Glancing nervously at KE1.

“He's fine. He’s passive and asleep. Don’t be so afraid.” Lance said softly, reaching his hand out.

"Okay...” they handed it to Lance. "Is... he, alright?"

“He’s okay, he’s sick...” he mumbled, carefully beginning to lift up KE1's sleeve.

The intern pulled a band-aid out of their pocket, for after the shot.

Lance took a breath before he injected ke1 with the vaccine.

KE1 winced and shifted slightly, but didn't seem to fully wake up.

Lance sighed in relief and pulled the needle out. He took the band-aid and put it on carefully over the injection.

The intern took the needle and put it back into the box, so they could find a biohazard trash bin later to put it in. KE1 rolled onto his side, pressed into Lance.

Lance smiled softly. “Thanks,” he said to the intern.

"No problem." The intern left, closing the door. KE1's chest was pressed against Lance's side, head, and arm on the doctor's chest like he was using him as a pillow.

Lance sighed and slowly stroked KE1s hair. He was fond of the mutant already, and there was still so much more work to be done to help him even more.

KE1 leaned into the touch, a low rumbling starting in his chest.

Lance was startled for a moment, confused.

The rumbling continued, KE1 sleeping contently.

After a few moments of listening, Lance laughed gently. “Still so many things to learn about you...” he mumbled, slowly raking his fingers through his hair."

KE1 usually ran warm, but now his skin radiated like a mug of hot tea in the cold room, chest buzzing calmly.

Lance yawned softly and smiled down at him.

KE1 shifted his legs closer to Lance's

Slowly, his eyes unwillingly began to shut. he struggled to keep them open as he texted Hunk a warning message before he could fall asleep. nill ne in Keith's vell if uou need me st all, im not goign anywhere.

r u okay

ueah

u taking a nap? lol

nno im npt

sure

shit uo

lol

lrt me di my wotk

i can't tell what ur typing anymore but okay

ley nmr ndo nmy nwoek

are cuddles work now?

in wotking wirh my mutatn

at least he's comfortable with you now XD

yrah noe shut uo

asdfghjkl

Lance fell asleep before he could reply again, so Hunk was left on read. his arm was draped around ke1.

Hunk frowned at Lance not responding and decided to go down and check on him. When he saw them both asleep like that beamed and snapped a couple cute pictures before quietly leaving.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment if you liked!


	3. Chapter 3

Lance awoke after resting for a few hours. He yawned and took a deep breath, his eyes slowly opening. KE1 was still asleep, legs tangled with Lance's and his whole body pressed against him. Lance looked down and smiled softly at him. After realizing he never texted Hunk back, he opened his phone.

**Sorry, I fell asleep.**

**I figured** , Hunk texted, not telling him he had seen and taken pictures.

**did you managed to get anything done while I was out or anything???**

**yeah. I put together a timeline of when we'll have to do more vaccines and a schedule for the ones we can do now.**

**Okay, thanks so much. Anything else? or is that it?**

**I've been adding to the list for what we can do for a new room for him? It'll need better plumbing, I think they've been only piping the cold water there, which is just... petty... It should have windows too. Shit has he even been outside before???**

**i dont even think he knows what outside is tbh**

**tru but D:**

**yeah I know…**

**We should take him to the courtyard, it's closed off so it should be fine.**

**we can take him once hes awake.**

**Yeah.**

**this place was a fucking mess before... its sad.**

**Yeah... I think Allura might be able to sue. I'm sure she already knows, but. She should. This is awful.**

**yeah, definitely. I just hope its soon... and I hope we win enough money to fix everything here…**

**yeah.**

**wanna come down here and keep my company lol**

**I thought you had your mutant to do that ;)**

**well hes asleep so I can't talk to him**

**lol, yeah sure be down in a sec.**

**thanks**

Lance sighed and looked down at KE1 again, brushing his hair with his fingers. The rumbling in KE1's chest started up again, and Hunk came in a few moments later

"hey," Lance said softly when he saw Hunk arrive.

 "You seem to have some sort of growth" Hunk laughed softly, sitting on the chair they had replaced the stool with.

"Shut up." Lance giggled.

Then, Hunk heard the rumbling. "Oh my god is he purring? Like a cat?!" Lance began to laugh, unable to help himself. He could hardly nod. KE1 began to stir, not wanting to be awake but not awake enough to be fully aware, either. He held Lance tighter. Lance covered his mouth and tried to stop laughing for KE1s sake. 

"S-sorry, bud," he giggled. KE1 whined softly in the back of his throat and pressed his face into Lance's chest. Hunk put the back of his hand to his forehead, leaning back dramatically.  

“He’s too cute” the man mouthed.

"Ah, geez...” Lance chuckled. "Shut up, would you?"

"I didn't say anything but…” Hunk mouthed teasingly. Lance giggled a little more. KE1 stretched his arms out and wrapped them around Lance. Lance smiled softly and slowly pet his hair. KE1'S purring got louder. Hunk stifled a chuckled with his hand.

Lance giggled softly. "I know..." KE1 started to doze off again, now that Lance had stopped moving. "Have you talked to Allura about her progress yet?"

"Last I knew she was working on finding someone who can consult with her on a renovation, just so she can get the plans for that concrete and out of the way. I don't know what she's unofficially doing though,” Hunk replied quietly, alluding to the lawsuit.

"Okay... how’s Katie been working? I haven't really talked to her at all yet."

"She's been recovering deleted files and putting them somewhere safe, and collecting other evidence so far. I think she'll be documenting the functions I struck out of use for some of the machines soon."

"That’s good...” Lance nodded slowly.

"Yeah. Allura said she'll have to take pictures of any scarring, too. I don't know when that will happen, though..." Hunk looked at the rough scars and calluses along KE1'S jaw and mouth from the muzzle he'd heard about.

"I can do that for her in a bit..." Hunk nodded somberly. "I just wish this didn't have to happen to him..."

“We can't change what he went through, but we did stop it from continuing."

"Yeah..."

Allura texted Lance.  **I have some therapist applications for you to look through for Keith. Pick them up when you can.**

**thanks** , he texted back, smiling a little.

"What’s up?” Hunk asked.

"Therapist applications. Can you interview them with me?"

"Sure."

"thanks.” he smiled more.

KE1 stirred.  "Wha's goin' on?" he mumbled, his eyes opening a fraction.

"Nothing, how did you sleep...?"

"...good..." KE1 said slowly, finally noticing his position.

"How do you feel?"

"Hurts..." His throat was sore and his muscles ached for some reason.

"Yeah... you'll be better soon. You took the medicine, so that'll help you get better.”

"Okay...” He wasn't sure how he ended up in this position...

"You okay?" Lance smiled softly at him.

"Maybe...?"

"Do you want me to leave?"

"I-is this... Okay...?" KE1 asked quietly. He was comfortable but didn't know what to think about the situation.He couldn’t remember ever having this much contact with anyone.

"Yeah, this is fine." he smiled happily.

"Okay...” He relaxed a little.

Lance smiled up at Hunk, not entirely sure what to do.

"You hungry?” Hunk asked. It was almost lunch time and Keith's breakfast still lay abandoned on the table from when Lance had found him sick. KE1 shook his head.

"Well, you're sick, you might not be able to tell," he said, concerned. "You should try eating anyway."

"Just a little bit," Lance assured.

"Okay... "

"I have some soup to heat up for you," Hunk said, "it's canned since this was kind of short notice, but it should be good."

"That should be fine," Lance said, smiling softly.

"Okay.” Hunk got up to get soup ready, leaving the two alone.

"So... are you adjusting alright to the new changes?" Lance asked softly.

"I think..."

"Is everything going okay for you? is there anything you wanna change?"

"I didn't really know all this could change..." he said softly. He still doesn't really know what could be changed, or what he would want to be changed.

"Well... is there anything you want for yourself?"

"I don't know...” He wasn't even sure what there was to want...

"Okay.” Lance smiled gently.

KE1 felt embarrassed for knowing so little.

Lance noticed his look and sighed. "No one is expecting you to know all this... we can teach you.”

"Okay..."

He smiled warmly and brushed the hair from the other's eyes. KE1 closed his eyes slowly. Soon Hunk came back with a bowl of soup and a cup of tea and honey on a tray alongside his and Lance's lunches, so they could all eat together.

"Keith, lunch,” Lance said, gently tapping his shoulder.

KE1 opened his eyes. "Lunch...?”

"mhmm. Middle of the day food."

"What’s a day?"

"I... uhh...” Lance looked to Hunk for help.

"There's a lot of things that go into it... We can explain later." He figured Keith probably didn't even know what the fuck the sun was. How can you explain what a day is to someone that's never been outside?

"Well take you somewhere later today or tomorrow, okay?” Lance said, giving a gentle smile.

Ke1 tensed slightly, clenching his jaw. Being taken places was never good.

"I think you’ll like it.” he reassured. "Now let's go eat."

"O-okay..." They sat down at the table with Hunk.

Lance yawned softly before beginning to eat his lunch. He looked expectantly at KE1 to eat.

KE1 ate some soup. It was nice. There were all kinds of things floating in it, which was new to him, but it was good.

"How do you like it?” he asked, smiling.

"It floats."

He giggled.  "But do you like it?"

"Yeah"

"That’s good." Lance smiled and continued eating. Eventually, KE1 realizes he was actually hungry, and in time he finished the soup.

Lance chuckled when he noticed. "You still hungry?"

"a-a little..." he admitted nervously.

Lance smiled and ripped off a piece from his grilled cheese and handed it to him. "Try it."

KE1 did, and it stuck in his teeth, gooey and crunchy at the same time. It was weird

"How do you like it?"

He wasn't sure.  "It's... new."

"Do you wanna try some more?"

"It's your food."

"That’s okay, I can get more later. Do you wanna try more of it? "

"...sure."

“You can always ask for more food if you’re still hungry, Keith,” Hunk told him as Lance pulled off more of the sandwich and handed it to him. KE1 ate it.

"Do you like it a little more?" Lance asked.

"It sticks in my teeth”

"Yeah... but does it taste good?"

"Oh... Yeah. "

"Good, good...” Lance smiled happily.

KE1 rubbed his arm, which was a little sore for some reason, and froze, feeling the band-aid.

“What is it...?” Lance asked slowly, noticing.

“W-why is this here?”

"Oh... you were just bleeding a little. That thing stops it and helps it heal.” Lance offered a gentle smile.

"W-why was I bleeding?”

"I had to give you some medicine that you can't drink so you won’t get sick as easily."

"o-oh.” he didn't like when things were done to him without him knowing...

"It’s okay, it's good. It’ll help you."

KE1 nodded. The fact that Lance would do something without him being aware of it made him uneasy, though...

"You okay...?”

KE1 shook his head hesitantly.

"Okay.” Lance frowned a little.

"don't... without me... knowing...” he said quietly, not looking at Lance.

"Oh... I’m sorry, I’ll make sure next time. I just didn't want you getting worried or squirming... "

KE1 nodded slightly, not looking up.

"Next time, I’ll make sure you know, okay?”

"Okay.”

Lance eventually pushed his empty plate away, signifying he was done. Hunk was done with his lunch also.

"Do you want me to stay or leave?” Lance asked KE1 softly.

KE1 shrugged, then coughed a few times, breaths looking as if he had a bonfire in his lungs, filled with smoke and embers. Lances eyes widened in shock. He didn't entirely know what to do. KE1 kept coughing, he couldn't make himself stop. HIs throat burned. Then, a large sneeze interrupted the coughing, and he looked like a dragon for a moment, with the flames that burst out and set Hunk's napkin on fire. After a moment of realization, Lance doubled over with laughter, Hunk joining him. KE1 looked wide-eyed first at the smoldering napkin, then at Lance and Hunk, who were doing something he'd never seen before.

"A-Allura n-n-needs t-to see th-that!”

"I'll ask Katie to make a gif of the security footage,” Hunk laughed. Bewilderment started to turn into panic when Lance and Hunk didn’t stop, and the metal against KE1’s hand began to glow with heat.

"K-Keith? Wh-whats wrong? Are you a-alright?” Lance asked, coughing and starting to calm down when he saw KE1s state.

"w-what w-was that?” his eyes were steaming, thinking he had hurt the two somehow.

"w-we were just laughing. Are you okay? "

"What does that mean?!"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

Lance answering his question with the same question threw him off.  "I-i don't know what that is!"

"y-you don't know what laughing is?!"

"Am I supposed to?!"

"I-i... uhh... it’s... well, wh-when you see something funny... a-and it makes you happy, y-you laugh...?"

KE1 just looked at him, slightly confused but mostly frustrated that he just. Didn’t know things. Now he was crying again, which made him embarrassed.

"h-hey! Keith, it-it’s okay!” Lance began to panic a little, worried for him.  "It’s okay, I’m-I’m not hurt!"

"I h-hate... n-not knowing things... "

"h-hey... it’s okay, you're... you're not expected to know this stuff...” Lance frowned, sighing. "we're gonna fix things... well teach you so much... "

"But you're always so upset when I don't know things! You still expect me to! "

Lance took a breath. "I-i don't mean to... "

"We just make mistakes like that, Keith, we don't mean to upset you...” Hunk said softly. Keith sniffled.

"We’re here to help you...” Lance offered a hopeful smile.

KE1 rubbed at one of his eyes and sneezed fire again.

Lance frowned, now feeling partially at fault." hunk, can I talk to you in the hall?

"Yeah. Is it okay if we leave you alone for a sec?” KE1 nodded.

Lance led Hunk out to the hall and sighed. "I-I don’t wanna leave him alone when I have to go and do work... which is what's gonna have to happen soon. What if... what if we got him a pet...? I-it’s a stretch, I know, but I think it would help him. "

"Oh, yeah... Some kind of therapy animal might be a good idea... A cat? They’re easier to take care of. "

"Yeah, that'd be good.” Lance smiled a little.  "I-I’m just worried... "

"It would help him be more social... "

"Yeah..."

"You should text Allura. Maybe when we renovate your office can be closer to him?"

"Yeah, that'd be good.” Lance nodded. “wanna help me look through adoption sites and centers after work?"

"Sure, we should get a breed good for therapy, maybe have it trained as one before we bring it to him."

"Yeah,” he smiled.

"We'll have to add that to the list,” Hunk chuckled.

"Yeah... I hope he’s okay... "

In the cell, KE1 had gone back and curled up in bed, surrounded by the increasing number of pillows and blankets Lance and Hunk kept bringing him. His fever was spiking again, and he was shivering, burrowing under the mass of bedding.

"Should I go check on him?” Lance asked, beginning to grow worried. He never knew how parents felt until he practically became one to a 15-year-old.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea, just say bye before you go work on stuff. I'll go and update Allura on things. "

"Yeah, I will.” he smiled.  "Thanks.”

Hunk walked off, headed to her office.

Lance returned to KE1s cell and sighed when he saw him. "poor thing...“ he mumbled to himself, slowly walking over. KE1 was conked out, face sickly pale while also being sickly flushed as well. Lance chuckled when he saw him and sighed again. He put his hand to KE1s forehead and frowned. He brushed the bangs from the younger’s face before he silently left.

Hunk picked up and dropped off the therapist applications Allura had for Lance to look at, as well as the applications for the new head of building security, who would be in charge of the guards, which Lance saw when he got back to his office.

"Okay...” he sighed, and he sat down and began to sift through them. By the end, he found 3 he liked.

**Is Keith feeling better yet? Hunk told me about the therapy cat idea. I think it should be doable.** Allura texted

**I don't know, but he passed out again. He ate a little, and he likes grilled cheese.**

**Nice. Thoughts on applicants?**

**I like 3 of them.**

**Wonderful. I'll get back to them with interviews.**

**Thanks.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comment please!!!


	4. Chapter 4

Within the next week, they had interviewed and hired two new people, Coran as Keith's therapist, and Shiro as the department's new head of security. Lance was going to introduce them to Keith today, if all goes well. He walked into KE1s cell with the boy’s food, smiling softly. "Keith? You up?" he called softly. Keith hurriedly rushed out of the shower, raising his temperature so he steamed the water off while he threw on his clothes.

"Yeah!" he called, trying to get his shirt over his head.

"Breakfast," he said, setting the tray down on the table. KE1 came out of the bathroom rushed, his hair sticking up and curling oddly in places from the drying process. Lance giggled softly. "Come eat." Keith took his vitamins as he sat down and started to eat. Breakfast was warm; oatmeal with brown sugar, applesauce, and cinnamon in it. Oatmeal? Tasting good? Apparently. Hunk was just that talented. Lance smiled softly as he watched Keith eat.

"Is it good?" KE1 nodded since he had food in his mouth. "Good, good," He grinned. "I’m gonna bring in a couple new people for you to meet today. They’ll be working with you."

"Okay”

"How was your shower?" KE1 shrugged. it was how showers always were, cold and hard and he had to be done before breakfast.

"Okay... any questions you have at all?"

"What're the new people for?"

"One is going to be your therapist. He’ll help you deal with big changes, and he's there to listen to you when you're upset or angry. He’ll help you know what your feelings are, too. The other will be the new head of security, so he'll keep you safe."

"Oh."

"They’re really nice, don't worry," Lance explained, smiling softly.

KE1 nodded. Hunk had been nice.

"How do you feel today?"

"...not...sick...?"

"Good, good," he chuckled, "anything else...?"

"I don't... think so... "

"Okay," When KE1 had finished eating Lance stood up from his chair. "I'll bring the head of security in first, okay?"

"Okay."

Lance left for a few moments, and then he brought in Shiro. KE1 watched them silently.

"Keith, this is Shiro," Lance said, gesturing to Shiro, who stepped forward.

"Hi, it’s nice to meet you, Keith."

"Hi." He pulled his legs up to sit crisscross in the chair. Shiro extended a hand to shake, his prosthetic hand at his side, but KE1 only stared, not knowing what to do with it.

"Keith, take his hand," Lance explained gently.

KE1 frowned, perplexed.  "Does it...come off?" He’d only been told to take things that weren’t attached to people before.

Shiro chuckled. "Not this one," he raised his real hand, "but this one does." Shiro raised his other arm and carefully took it off.

"Oh." KE1 looked at the stump curiously.  "When did they take your hand off?"

"A few years ago," he smiled. "Wanna touch it?"

Keith frowned, focused on the answer rather than the question. "You’re growing back really slow," he commented.

"I don't think my arm is gonna grow back, bud."

"What do you mean?" Keith asked, confused. "Mine did..."

"You’re cooler than me, I guess." Shiro shrugged and smiled. Keith, wanting to make sure they believed him, pulled up his sleeve to show a thick keloid scar below his wrist where they had cut off his hand once; he couldn’t really remember when. It couldn’t have been that long ago because he knew it was the doctor that came before Lance.

"Oh... that's rough, bud, I’m sorry..." Shiro mumbled, sighing as he observed the scar. Lance, who hadn’t seen the scar before, was horrified.

"Oh my god..." KE1 glanced at Lance and Shiro's faces, looking scared because of their reactions. Were things not supposed to grow back like that?

"Hey... at least if you lost your arm, you'd get it back, right?" Shiro joked, trying to lighten the situation.

"Are they... Not supposed to grow back...?" Keith asked softly, staring at the floor with hunched shoulders. Another thing that made him not human.

"Well... they're not, but you're cool." he gave a warm smile, hoping to help.

KE1 clenched his jaw and pulled his sleeve back down, his hair falling in his face.

"It’s okay, Keith..." Shiro sighed. Keith stayed silent. "Do you want me to leave...?"

"I don't know..." the boy mumbled.

"Okay..." Shiro nodded and stayed where he was, fixing his prosthetic back in place.

"Are you hungry or anything, Keith? Tired?" Lance asked, hoping he could do something to help. KE1 shook his head. He'd just had breakfast, and it was still 'morning' or whatever that was. It didn’t make sense for him to be tired or hungry yet already.

"Okay..." the two stood silently, unsure of what to do until KE1 spoke again.

"What do you do...?” he asked since there seemed to be no other way to make something else happen aside from speaking.

"Me?" Shiro asked, pointing to himself with a cocked brow.

"Yeah...?" He knew what Lance did. Lance was nice and did nice things.

"I’m gonna protect you from anything that might try to hurt you."

"Oh."

"It’s not cool?"

"How do you?" He asked, not really finishing the sentence but feeling he got his point across.

"How do I protect you, you mean? or how do I protect you even though I have a fake arm?"

"The first?" Keith frowned, not understanding the second one or what Shiro’s arm had to do with anything.

"Well... I’m really strong. So, if anyone gets in and tries to go to hurt you, I’ll be there to make sure they don't. I’ll also be the one who makes all the others protect you. I’ll make sure there's more things that will help protect you." Shiro gave a smile.

"Who’re the 'others'?"

"A new team of guards, they'll make sure you're protected and safe and all."

Keith tensed at the mention of guards. They had never been... A good thing...

"Don’t worry, they'll help you. They won't be like the ones when I first started here. I’m gonna make sure they're all nice to you. "

"O-okay..."

"Is there anything else, Keith?" Shiro asked softly. KE1 shook his head. "Okay, do you want me to stay or leave?"

"I don't know..." It was weird having control over people like this... He wasn't used to it.

"Is it okay if we leave? We both have some work to do, but well come back later.” Lance suggested.

"Okay," KE1 nodded.

"It was nice meeting you, Keith," Shiro said, smiling. KE1 nodded.

"He’ll... he’ll warm up eventually.” Lance sighed once they were outside.

"I didn't expect him to be talkative," he chuckled.

"Alright," he smiled a little.

"The hand thing was a little... startling, though..."

"Yeah... I hadn't caught that prior…”

"Has he met the therapist yet? Uh... Coran? "

"No, not yet."

"When will they meet?"

"I’m hoping to bring him in later today.”

 Shiro nodded.  "I hope Keith likes him. I should go, there’s still some paperwork I have to go through.”

"Yeah, you do that." Lance nodded, smiling a little. Shiro left with a wave.

Within the next 20 minutes, Lance was back in KE1s cell with Coran.

"Keith, this is Coran. He’ll be your therapist." Lance introduced, smiling hopefully.

"Hello!" Coran smiled under his thick mustache.

"Hi," Keith stared at the mustache, wondering if that was the man's actual mouth.

"I’m Coran, nice to meet you!”  Coran extended a hand happily, smiling brightly. This time, since Shiro had done the same thing, KE1 held the hand. Coran politely shook his hand. Not knowing what to do, KE1 didn't let go.

"you can let go now, Keith, the handshake is done.” Lance chuckled. KE1 took his hand back, embarrassed. Coran chuckled lightly.

“How are you feeling today?"

"Fine," KE1 shrugged.

"Good, do you have any questions at all?"

"Is that your mouth?"

"What?” Coran asked, raising a brow.

KE1 stared at the mustache for a second.  "Never mind."

"My mustache, you mean?” he wiggled said facial hair a bit.

"...yeah...?”

Coran laughed softly. “Oh, no! It’s just for decoration, although I can't take it off!” he smiled as he lifted his mustache enough for his mouth to appear.

Keith's eyes widened.  "How?? Did it get there?"

"I grew it!" Keith frowned, confused.

"Some people can grow facial hair, Keith, but not all,” Lance explained, chuckling.

"Huh”

"Do you like it?” Coran asked Keith. Keith shrugged. He didn’t know, it was just kinda there. "Okay, I’m happy to start working with you!" KE1 nodded. This new person was loud. "Do you have any more questions?"

"What will you...do?"

"Well... you can talk to me about anything, really! if you have any questions that Lance cannot answer, I’m right here! If you're having issues and you feel bad and Lance can't be here for you, I can be! I’m also here to help you express yourself and know how you’re feeling so you know what to say when Lance or one of us ask.”

"Oh. Okay."

"Well, uh... I think that's it!” Coran smiled. KE1 nodded. "It was nice to meet you, Keith! I look forward to working with you in the near future! "

"Okay."

Lance smiled and showed Coran out, sighing once they were out. He wasn’t sure what to think about the interaction. Did KE1 not like him? Was he just tired? Coran went back to his office, and Lance was torn between talking to KE1 about what happened and going back to his own office to do more work and sort things out to help Allura. Eventually, Lance decided on the first and slowly returned to KE1s cell. "Keith...?"

"...yeah?" He asked, making little patterns in the air with sparks from his breathing.

"How did you like Coran...? Was he okay? "

Keith nodded

"Was there something you didn't like about him...? Or something he said? I-if you don't like him, maybe we can find a new therapist for you. "

"He was fine..." Keith frowned"

"Are... are you sure...? Keith, I-I wanna make sure you're happy and comfortable. "

"There was no reason for him to not be fine..."

"Okay, you just-- you just seemed uncomfortable with him, o-or like you didn't like him."

"Oh..."

"A-are you sure you're okay with him?" Keith nodded "Okay," Lance said slowly.

"Are you okay with him?"

"Yeah." Keith was quiet for a moment.

"What's therapy?"

"I... uhh..." Lance thought, unsure of how to explain it. Keith stared at the floor, waiting for an answer. "its... its gonna help you feel better... you'll be able to explain what upsets you, and you can talk about what happened to you in the past... in exchange, Coran will help you find ways to help you deal with your past, and he’ll help you make things better for yourself now. " Lance prayed that made sense.

"Oh. Okay."

"Yeah..." he trailed off, not knowing what to say or do for the moment.

"Is that all that's happening now?" He asked, wondering if that was all that would go on today.

"Hunk and I are gonna take you somewhere later. I think you'll find it interesting." Keith was unsure for a moment but figured it would be fine. Lance and Hunk hadn't hurt him yet. He nodded.

"I’ll leave you be then since there's nothing else to really do and I have work... I’ll see you later, I guess." Lance gave a little smile.

"Okay." Keith gave a small wave.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this just kinda introduced Shiro and Coran to the mix, more will happen in the next chapter. I wanted to combine them but the next one is twice as long and way more editing so it would just prolong the time between chapters, and I didn't want you guys waiting that long! Tell us what you think!


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> him OUT

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Worked hard to get this ready for you guys since there were good responses to it recently in the comments! Thank you so much for them they really motivate me. <3

Lance grabbed Hunk from his office an hour or two later, and they began to head to KE1s cell.

"Think he'll like it?" Lance asked.

"Probably, it might freak him out a bit at first but it'll at least be a start!"

"Yeah,” he nodded and chuckled.

When they reached his cell, Lance took one look at KE1, who was doing a handstand out of boredom, before he had to back out so he could laugh. He hadn't seen someone do that in years. KE1 was startled by the door opening and started to lose his balance, but a couple 'arms'(they were more just... deformed bursts of fire) sprouted out of his shoulders to quickly stabilize him before he righted himself to standing.

"Ready?” Hunk chuckled as he watched him.

"Yeah." Keith brushed his hair back behind his ears. Hunk lead him out of the room.

“How do you feel?” Lance asked.

"Where're you taking me?" Keith asked instead of answering.

"Somewhere pretty."

"Oh...?" Lance nodded and smiled as Hunk lead them to the elevator.

“Elevator rides feel weird at first, but you get used to them,” Lance explained as they were stepping in.

"What does it do?"

“It’s a box that lifts and lowers us, we’re going to go up.”

“Oh.”

Hunk pressed the button. The elevator jerked, making Keith jump, catch fire for split second, and cling to the metal bar with wide eyes.  

"Oh," he repeated. Lance laughed softly.

“Don't worry, you're safe."

"it'll do that again when we stop which is...now," Hunk warned. Keith exhaled some smoke. Lance giggled softly and made sure to keep ahold of KE1 so he wouldn't do anything.

“It’s okay."

"Y-yeah."

Hunk lead them through all the regular offices and cubicles, Keith staring wide-eyed at all the people. He’d never seen so many in one place. Then they got to the door that lead outside to the courtyard. Outside, summer would be turning into fall soon. There were a couple benches to sit on. There were grass and flowers, and trees towered overhead. Keith didn't know where to look. He was completely bewildered. Hunk turned on his phone to film the event.

"W-what now?"

"Just... go and look.” Lance smiled, giving him a little nudge.

"w-what is it?"

"It’s outside."

"So... what's that…?" he pointed into the building.

"That’s inside."

The air moved, and Keith looked around trying to find why.  "What's blowing it?"

"Uhh... it's a lot to explain... its called wind." Lance explained, chuckling.

"It just? Moves? On its own?" He carefully toed a patch of grass.

"Mhm." Lance nodded, smiling more. Keith sat cross-legged on the sidewalk and poked at the ground, hand coming up with a small chunk of dirt. Keith looked up at Lance, horrified.

"What?" Lance chuckled.

"I broke the floor," he squeaked. Lance felt bad for laughing, but he couldn’t help it.

"O-oh god... I-I-- umm... no, Th-that's not it..." he said through his laughter.

"The ground does that outside," Hunk assured, somehow, despite also laughing and filming on his phone.

"Oh," Keith mumbled, embarrassed. He tipped his hand to get the dirt off and then poked at the grass.  "Why's it got stuff on it?"

"Th-that's grass. It helps us breathe." Lance explained simply.

Keith frowned, startled.  "Do we not breathe inside? There's no grass inside."

"Well... air is everywhere, isn't it? That’s what you breathe, right?"

"But if grass helps you breathe then how do you breathe where it isn't??? Do I breathe???" He'd never been around grass before.

"Well... uhh..." Lance looked to Hunk for help, unsure of how to explain it.

"Well, plants, things like grass and trees which are those big tall things," Hunk began, gesturing with the hand not filming, "grow outside unless we have a special bowl for them inside. The thing about air is that it's made of different parts that we can’t see. When we breathe, our bodies use some parts and make other parts when we push the air back out. Plants make the part in the air we use, and when we breathe out we make the part of the air they use. The part we use is everywhere, even if we aren't around a plant, but plants are good to keep the air parts having the same amount as each other."

"Oh," Keith nodded.  "That's a lot."

"Yeah."

"That’s really smart... holy shit, Hunk." Lance breathed, surprised.

"Lance you're a doctor you've taken chemistry," Hunk laughed.  "I tutored a lot in school."

"W-well, I mean... I know, but you just explained it really well."

"Thanks," Hunk grinned.  "My backup career was teaching but... This is both I guess!"

"Well, now it is," Lance laughed.

"So... Are there other insides?"

"Mhm, tons. My apartment is an inside."

"So you don't just... Come from here?"

Lance chuckled. "No, I don't."

"Oh... What's an apartment?"

"A place to live in a big building. Its small, only a few rooms. You don't own the place either, you just pay to stay there."

"It’s like your...room, but bigger and there are a few different rooms. People usually live together there.“ Hunk explained.

"it also doesn't cost as much as buying and living in a house, which is bigger and nicer than an apartment. "

"Let’s not explain money, dude, " Hunk whispers.

"Oh... shit, you're right..."

"What’s that?" Keith asked, pointing at a robin.

"That’s a bird."

"What’re those?" He asked, pointing at a flock of sparrows

"That’s a certain kind of bird.”

"Birds can all look different. Like how Lance and I don't look the same. "

"Huh."

"There’s also things other than birds, like cats.” Lance smiled.

"What are cats?"

"You’ll see one soon. Usually, you don't find them anywhere outside like you would with birds."

"Oh?" Keith frowned, not understanding.

"Maybe show him some pictures on your phone?" Hunk whispered.

"Oh, right.” lance pulled out his phone and pulled up a picture of his own cat, a British shorthair. “here.” he showed the phone to Keith.

"That’s a cat?"

"Yeah, what do you think?"

"It looks small and soft."

"Do you like it?" Hunk asked. Keith nodded, smiling a little

Lance grinned widely at Keith's little smile. "Hunk, he's smiling! " he hissed to the other.

"Good and pure, " Hunk whispered back, zooming in on the boy's face.

"Should I show him a dog?"

"Sure"

Lance pulled up a picture of his family's dog and showed it to Keith. “This is a dog."

"I like the cat. It looks soft. "

He chuckled.

"What does the dog look like to you?"

"...not soft."

Lance laughed gently.  "Okay."

Keith stuck his forefinger out at Lance. There was an ant on it.  "What’s this?"

"That’s called an ant. They kind of suck. "

Keith frowned hard.  "It’s not doing anything to suck."

"Yeah Lance, stop being mean to the ants, " Hunk teased.

Lance laughed. "they can suck. "

"Why?!”

"They can get everywhere if you're not careful."

"Are they supposed to be in a place?"

"Well... they live in the ground, and they are bad if they get into living spaces because they can destroy things."

"Well, some kinds of ants," Hunk started, "there are all kinds of ants too, everything alive has different types of itself. Some ants hurt you if they think you're attacking them, and sometimes they try to live where we as humans live, and since we live there we don't want them there. Lots are just doing their thing though. Like that lil' guy."

"They’re just annoying." Lance narrowed his eyes at the ant.  "They eat food and get into beds and clothes... "

"Huh," Keith hummed."

"What? Ant defender..." Keith put his finger out to the grass until the ant left him.

"What should we show him next?" Lance asked Hunk.

"How to climb one of those trees."

"Hmm... sure." he shrugged."

"Hey, Keith."

"What”

"You can get in trees. Lance will show you. "

"Oh?”

Lance grinned as he ran to the nearest tree, and he began to climb it with ease.

"Is-is the tree okay with that?!"

"Well... the tree can't really feel anything! They’re strong and all!" Lance explained as he climbed.

"Oh."

"You try," Hunk suggested.

"O-okay..." Keith stood up and walked over to the tree. He grabbed the thick branch above him and walked against the trunk until he could wrap his legs around it too, and he was hanging like a sloth, his shoulder-length hair sticking out at angles while he was upside down. "I'm in it."

"You sure are buddy," Hunk said, still filming. Lance looked down and laughed. "You’ll learn."

"I'm in it though. I did the climb.”

"Well... that's true. But, you could climb higher, like me!"

"Try to grab a higher branch with your arms, and pull yourself up more until you can sit on top of the branch you're hanging off of now," Hunk suggested. Keith tried this, but lost his grip and ended up dangling from only his legs, almost bashing his head on the ground with a startled yelp.

"Keith!" Lance shouted, quickly climbing down. "A-are you alright?!"

"I'm upside-down.”

"W-w-- well, yes but are you okay?" Lance slowly managed to help Keith down and sighed.

"Yeah."

"Good..." lance impulsively pulled Keith into a hug. "you scared me..." The hug was unexpected, but... Nice. Keith thought he liked it, probably, unsure why. Being a fair bit shorter, he buried his face into Lance's shoulder and closed his eyes.

"Are you sure you're okay...?" Lance asked when he pulled away to look at the other.  Keith gave a small whine in the back of his throat at the loss of contact and pulled Lance back into him again, nuzzling his head under the man's chin. Lance was shocked for a second before he chuckled. "okay... do you wanna go back inside or do you wanna stay out here...?” Keith shrugged silently. He just didn't want this to stop...

"Well... do you have any other questions...?"

"No,” his voice was muffled.

"Okay... can we walk back inside then?"

"I'm sure you can keep cuddling when you get back to your room," Hunk said, trying to laugh. He had stopped filming. "Okay," came the, again, muffled reply. Lance chuckled and pulled away so they could walk back to Keith’s cell. Hunk parted early, saying that he was going to talk to Allura about something, so the two were alone when they got to the cell and Keith re-attached himself to Lance. Lance giggled softly and waddled over to the bed with his arms wrapped around Keith. Keith flopped them onto the bed and wiggled until they were nestled in his arrangement of pillows. This caused more giggling, and Lance sighed. "I’d never peg you for someone who would enjoy physical affection..."

"It’s new..." He was clearly touch starved.

"Yeah..." he said softly, suddenly somber.

"Is it... Okay?" He asked starting to get nervous

"Yeah, of course it’s okay," he smiled.

"Okay."

"Are you tired?"

Keith nodded softly against his chest.

"You can sleep if you want."

"Mmk." Lance eventually found himself slowly petting Keith’s hair, raking his fingers through it gradually. The gentle touches were calming, and Keith slowly drifted to sleep. The older looked down and smiled when he saw him asleep. With that, he fell asleep as well.

 

Upstairs, Hunk was talking to Allura.

"I-I think that with the channel that we create and these videos... we could get donations to help rebuild this place and make it helpful instead of harmful, you know? And-and it would educate people so they know what their government has done and funded." Hunk reasoned. Allura was intrigued.

"We would have to make an introduction video for it, with all of us and our roles, and introducing Keith, but I think it could be done. I'm not yet finished going over possible renovations, but it may be best to already have content before asking for donations. I'm not sure we should out what has been done to him in them, however, or blame the Government either. I don't want to take that risk just yet. We're collecting evidence for a legal malpractice, and humanitarian issue with the doctors and other staff involved already, I don't want to jump ahead of ourselves. "

"Alright," Hunk nodded, "I can film the introduction later today or tomorrow. We could explain the donations in another video, explain the cause..."

"Yes. I plan on suing, so the money from that would go towards renovations, but if people donate then it would make providing more specific care for him in the meantime without having to redirect funds away from the other projects," she nodded. “We’ll have to be transparent about where people’s money is going so no one suspects I’m adding it to anyone’s paychecks, though,” she chuckled grimly.

“Yeah,” Hunk winced. That hadn’t come to mind.

"I'll put an email out, you set up with everyone when you'll be filming."

"Yeah, got it. Thanks, Allura, really." Hunk gave a wide smile. She gave him a thumbs up. "Do you need help with anything while I’m here?"

"No, but if you could photograph all of the more questionable functions of the machines down there and email them to me that would be great."

"Yeah, definitely," Hunk nodded and smiled before turning and leaving.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> deleted the spoof chapter about ER's excessive use of the OU combination. This is the REAL chapter 6. Also a warning for some more file-related bad shit along the same lines of when Lance read Keith's files. Just a heads up. Yeet

"Okay," Hunk said, his phone set up on a small tabletop tripod for filming, "tell them about yourself!"

"Okay..." Keith said, sitting in the chair in front of the phone.  "I'm KE1?"

"Keith. That's your name because we call you that now," Hunk said softly.

"O-oh."

"It’s okay! Just keep going!" Lance encouraged softly, smiling reassuringly.

"Um... I...like...cats...? And... I climbed a tree... "

"Good... good... anything else?" Lance asked quietly.

"I catch fire. And I can make arms." To prove this he made his solid flame arms, out of his shoulders above his normal ones. He glanced at Lance.

Lance smiled and gave a thumbs up. "So what all did Allura say we could reveal in this video? " he asked Hunk quietly.

"No malpractice or uh... Humanitarian issues. I think that's fine? "

"Okay... well, run it by her later, okay?"

"Yeah. We can do some editing if we have to."

"Sh-should I not have done that?" Keith asked anxiously.

"No, it’s okay! You can tell the camera as much as you want! Whatever you can't say, we can take out of it! It’s like magic!" Lance gave another reassuring smile."

Keith frowned, puzzled. If there were things he couldn't say then shouldn't he... Not Say them??

"Is that all you wanna say? You can say more if you want." Keith shook his head, so Hunk stopped the recording.

"We’ll review the footage with Allura when she's ready." Keith nodded.

"You're helping us fix this place," Lance told him, smiling brightly.

"Okay.”

"So... once we bring you back, do you want us to stay or leave?"

"There's nothing for you to do...” he didn't really get why they would want to stay...

"Alright," he smiled gently, “come on then. Unless you’d rather stay in here for now. "

Keith stood up. There was no reason for him to stay in there,

"Alright then, let’s go. " lance waved Keith to follow, smiling. They walked to the elevator. "So... how are you feeling?"

"I don't know..." he shrugged. He didn’t think he was feeling any of the words Coran had been talking about, at least. Lance nodded softly as the elevator began to lower. Keith rocked back and forth on his feet, hands behind him holding onto the little metal bar. When the elevator landed on the bottom floor and the doors opened, Lance waved him out.

"Dinner will be in a bit," he said as he slowly led him back.

"Okay."

"So... I’m gonna talk to Allura about bringing you away from here for a day... to the outside."

"We went outside."

"Well... but there's more than just that little patch of outside. There’s a lot, lot more."

"Like where you're from?" Keith asked, sitting cross-legged on the bed and holding a pillow to his chest.

"Kind of... you can come to my inside and see how I live... maybe you can go to Hunks inside... well take you to other places that are outside... well take you to other insides... "

"Are they like this inside?"

"Not the insides I’ll take you to."

"Oh"

"They’ll be nicer looking, don’t worry."

"What’s that mean?" He asked slowly.

"Like... they’ll be more colorful... and cleaner." Lance frowned slightly.  "But your inside here will look nicer soon too... "

"Oh... Like... Colors?" He pointed to the clashing colors of the pillows and blankets.

"Yeah," Lance smiled and nodded."

"hm"

"I think the colors will look prettier at the other insides," he chuckled.

"Are they called things?"

"What do you mean?"

"They all look different"

"Well... yeah, everything is gonna look different, even if they look the same. There’s gonna be tiny differences. Even some people look alike, but they can't look exactly like each other. "

"But... Are they just... Colors??? "

"OH... they all have different names!" Keith nodded. Lance then listed off all the colors, pointing at each blanket that matched the color he named.

"Keith bobbed his head along"

"This pattern," he pointed at the zebra striped blanket, "is called a zebra stripe pattern. Its named after the animal, which has stripes like this... and this," he pointed at the polka dotted blanket, "is a polka dot pattern."

"Mm"  

"I’ll take you to see a zebra one day, don’t worry... or at least I’ll show you a picture."

"Are they inside?"

"Well... you go to a private part of outside that you have to pay to get in. but its fun there!" Lance smiled.

"Keith frowned.  "What's that mean?"

"What’s what mean?"

"'pay'?"

"Oh... you’ll learn that later, but... I give someone something in order to get something, get in somewhere... do something... "

"...oh... "

"Yeah... anyway, which one of the blankets do you like the most?" Lance pointed at the blankets, curious to see which color he’d like most. Keith  grabbed the one that was a light pink on one side and a muted lilac on the other.

"Ooh..." he smiled softly.

"They look soft."

"ahh... I like that one,” Lance pointed at the green one.

"It’s outside."

"mhmm, do you like it?" Keith nodded. He liked all of them. "That's good." Lance smiled more. "So... do you have any questions about colors?" Keith shook his head. "Okay… Do you... have any questions about outside? Or other insides?"

Keith was quiet for a while, hugging a pillow to his chest.

"Are there more humans outside?"

"Like you and me? Tons of them." Keith frowned.

"...but... "

"But what...?"

"I'm not human..." Lance was startled for a moment.

"Yes you are!"

Keith shook his head, staring at the floor. Lance sighed.

"Well, Keith... I think that you're a human, and as a doctor, I’m not allowed to lie to you."

Keith didn't look up at him. He’d been told his whole life that he wasn't a human, he was a mutant and that meant he wasn't human. Lance  _ knew _ he was a mutant, so why would he say something like this now?

"Keith...? Are you okay...?" Lance frowned, sighing.

"I'm a mutant though..."

"But that doesn't make you something other than a human... you're still like Hunk and I... you're just… cooler."

"I don't know what that means..."

"You’re still a human, whether you have fire powers or not... it’s what makes you different, and everyone in the world is different, Keith... you remember how Shiro has the fake arm?"

"Yeah... "

"That’s what makes him different... and I have a bunch of brothers and sisters... that’s what makes me different from some people..."

"But those things don't make humans get locked up and experimented on…” Keith stated bitterly.

"Keith... I know it's been hard for you... I really wish I could make so that you don't remember all that... but what I can do now is help you to get better from it. Allura is gonna make this better, she’s gonna help make this place better for you."

Keith was silent, staring at the floor, the lower half of his face pressed into the pillow.

"Do you want me to leave...?"

Keith nodded slowly.

"Alright," Lance nodded softly and stood, "did I upset you today?"

Keith shrugged. He didn't know if he was upset. He might be... he wasn't completely sure what counted as being upset yet...

"Well... do you feel like I said something that hurt you?"

"'I don't know... "

"Okay... dinner will be here in a bit," Lance said as he began to leave.

"Okay"

Lance quietly left, feeling like he had upset Keith. He sighed, wanting to go bug Allura for work to keep himself busy. He poked his head through Coran’s door on his way there. The man looked up from his work quickly, with a warm smile.

“What has you looking so bummed out, my boy?” the man asked, cheerful as always.

“Keith… said something a few minutes ago… I kind of upset him…” Lance confessed, looking down guiltily.

“May I ask what happened?”

“Hunk and I took him outside for the first time, to the courtyard yesterday, and today after we did the video thing when we went back to his room just now he asked if there were other buildings with people outside of this one, and I said yeah, that they were just like us.”

“And you’re saying this upset him?”

“Y-yeah…” Coran leaned back in his chair with a low sigh. “He… he said he wasn’t human because he was a mutant, and I tried to tell him he’s just a little different, like everyone else, like how Shiro’s different because he has that prosthetic but he’s still human…”

“And what did he say to that?”

“That those differences don’t get anyone locked up and experimented on.” Coran sat forward, elbows rested on his desk his chin in in his hands.

“And I presume he isn’t quite in the mood for visitors at the moment?” Lance nodded. “Well, it’ll take time to combat this train of thought, it may not ever go away fully, but we’ll find a way to help him through it,” Coran assured. Lance nodded somberly. “I’ll talk to him later today.”

“Alright…. See you later,” Lance said, stepping back out of the doorway.

“Have a good day.” Coran smiled.

Allura looked up from her computer where she was making notes on the videos Hunk had sent her and saw Lance at her door.  "Come in."

"Hey," he said softly, walking in, "How’s the editing coming along...?"

"Good. I'm taking out the arm thing from the intro, but the video in the courtyard is fine."

"Alright, good... I kind of figured it would be removed." Lance sat in one of the chairs in front of the desk and leaned on the wooden surface, watching Allura work.

She glanced at him from over her monitor again.  "Are you out of work today already?"

"Mhm."

"Well then." She opened a drawer in her desk and slid a thick, faded manila folder sliding over to him.  "Do some reading."

"What is it?" he asked, placing his hands on the top of the folder.

"Keith's origins." the label on the folder was almost too faded to read.  _ Project K _

"Oh..." lance took a breath before carefully opening the folder. The papers were about the company's attempts to synthetically create a child with mutated human DNA. it included all of the botched and disposed of results (half-formed fetuses, misshapen babies, ones with organs and bones growing outside where they shouldn't be) up until they got Keith.  

"We're going to need to prepare to prove that he should count as a human so that we can combat whatever the former administration tries to pull in court," Allura explained.

"o-oh fuck..." he mumbled to himself, slowly looking through the folder.

"Did you hear me?"

"Wh-what?" Lance looked up.

"We're going to need to prepare to prove that he should count as a human so that we can disprove whatever the former administration tries to pull in court."

"okay." he nodded gently.

"Could you scan all of those documents and note all the evidence that can be used to prove Keith as a human on the digital copies please?"

Lance nodded. "Of course."

"Thank you." Lance smiled a little and left to go keep himself busy with the new work.

That evening Coran visited Keith while he was eating his dinner. Hunk had left him to himself since Lance told him about what happened, not wanting to make Keith uncomfortable if he wanted to be alone, but Coran wanted to talk.

“Hello Keith,” he greeted. “I heard about your little adventure outside yesterday. Did you like it?”

Keith nodded silently, nibbling on a slice of apple. He had finished his bowl of soup, leaving the round slices of carrots methodically pushed into a pile at one side of the bowl. Coran noticed it with a touch of amusement.

“You’re not going to eat your carrots?” he asked, a wry smile hidden under his mustache, “They’re good for you, you know.” Keith stared down into the bowl, looking incredibly displeased.

“Lance eats them.”

“Does he now?” Coran chuckled. “And why does he do that?”

“So I don’t have to.”

“Do you not like them?” Keith shook his head.

“They feel bad.”

“Ah… so this is a sensory issue,” he mused. “Well, I think it’s best if you don’t eat them, then. You don’t have to do anything you don’t like after all.”

“What does ‘sensory’ mean?” Keith asked, poking the carrot slices around the bowl with his spoon. 

“Well, sensory is a word having to do with the senses, and senses are what we use to know the world around us. Sight is one sense, that’s what our eyes are for, we see things with them.” Keith didn’t really seem like he was paying attention, but Coran assumed he was anyway. “We also have smell, which we use our nose for, and taste which we use our tongue for. Touch is another sense, we don’t use anything specific for that. The last one though is sound. For that, we use our ears. That’s all of them. When someone has a ‘sensory issue’, they can be easily overwhelmed by feelings they don’t like, like if something is scratchy, or feels mushy, like the carrots. A lot of people have things like that, it’s perfectly normal. Does all that make sense?”

“Yeah.”

“I’m glad.” They sat in silence for a moment. “Do you want to do something new? If you don’t like it we can stop any time.”

“Okay.” 

Coran smiled and picked up the cardboard box he had brought with him off the seat of the chair next to him and put it on the table.

“This,” he said, opening the box, “Is called a puzzle. It’s a picture, but it’s in pieces that we have to fit together to see it. The picture on the box shows what it is so that we can see what goes where. Do you want to try to put it together with me?” Keith stared into the box for a moment, then nodded slowly. Coran smiled, and poured the pieces out on the table, spreading them out.

“Try to find the ones that have a straight edge, like the end of the table. They’ll only have one or two sides that look like that. You can put them in a pile near you.” Keith nodded and started looking. Coran started taking out the middle pieces and putting them back in the box. After a couple of minutes, Keith had all the edges. 

“Good work. Do you want to keep going?” Keith nodded. “Okay. I’ll spread them out again. Try to see which ones look like they fit together. They’ll have the same colors, too. Like this.” He took one of the corners and put an edge in place. “See how the part where they connect are both this green?” Keith nodded. “That should help too, then.” 

A few minutes into Keith trying to match the edges, Hunk came in to see if he was done with his dinner. He was surprised to see that Keith wasn’t alone.

“What are you two up to?” he asked cheerfully.

“A puzzle,” Coran answered. 

“Cool. Are you done eating, Keith?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” He picked up the tray and left to take it to the kitchen upstairs.

After another break of silence, Coran decided to start up a conversation. 

“So what were things that you did today? Anything new?”

“I met people.”

“Do you remember who?” Keith frowned.

“I think he looked like Katie…?”

“Matt?”

“Yeah.”

“They’re siblings, they have the same parents. Matt’s her older brother. Do you know what he does here?”

“He’s making worms. He has a lot of them. They’re not doing what he wants but he said it was okay.”

“Do you know why he said that?”

“He said that they’re doing their best and seeming upset would discourage them.” Coran couldn’t not laugh.

“Matthew is definitely an interesting young man.” Keith looked confused.

“Who… is Matthew…?”

“Oh! Well, he’s Matt, sometimes when people’s names are longer we shorten them and call them nicknames. Matt is short for Matthew, so Matt is his nickname and most people call him by it.”

“Oh.”

“Did that make sense?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Did you meet anyone else?”

“We said hi to Allura, but she was working with paper so Lance said we had to go. Katie showed me how the little camera works, too. They’re not using it yet though.”

“Do you know what it’s for?” Coran asked, watching Keith try to put two pieces together, looking frustrated with how they wouldn’t fit. “I don’t think those are supposed to go together, do you want to try another-”

“-but it’s the shape!” Keith exclaimed. “ _ And _ the color!”

“It is,” Coran agreed, “but this circle is bigger than the hole. There’s probably a piece that goes between them that is this color. Do you want help?”

“No,” Keith replied stubbornly. Coran sighed and unnested the box so that Keith could see the picture the puzzle would make, but Keith didn’t seem to notice.

“May I make a suggestion?” Coran asked.

“No.” After a few more moments of Keith silently staring at the puzzle he put the right pieces together. Then he looked up at Coran. “What?” he asked, catching Coran off guard.

“What do you mean, my boy?”

“You were gonna do something.”

“Oh! You want my suggestion after all?” Keith nodded. “I thought maybe you could switch to doing one of the other corners.”

“Okay.”

“May I ask why you didn’t want my suggestion before?”

“I was busy.” 

“Ah.” Keith found another piece that went with the area he had been working on. “Do you find it harder to work on this while we’re talking?”

“Sort of.”

“Do you want to stop talking so you can work better?”

“I don’t know…” Keith shrugged.

“What are you thinking about that makes you not know?” Coran asked. Keith sighed, staring at the table.

“It’d be weird for you to just… sit here watching me…”

“That’s true, I agree,” Coran laughed. “Is there something easy you’d want to talk about?” Keith shook his head. “Okay, would you want to work on the puzzle alone for a bit?”

“Sure.”

“Alright, well, I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

“Okay.”

Coran came back half an hour later. Keith had connected the two right corners. He gave him a pat for the good work and packed it away, careful not to break what Keith had put together. Then, Keith went to bed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter might take a while, I'm editing a 6,000+ section and could be adding more to it, but it should be a fun read! I hope you guys enjoyed this one and that the next one will be worth the wait! <3


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> its 130 in the morn happy east y'all

"Good morning," Lance called as he walked into Keith's cell. The bundle of blankets and pillows on the bed shifted around until Keith's curly hair and red eyes poked out of the tangled, brightly colored mess.

"Mmmm," Keith groaned. Lance chuckled gently.

"You’re gonna go somewhere special today, I just got it approved by Allura."

 "Oh?" Lance nodded and smiled brightly, sitting at the edge of the bed.

"So... you remember how I have an inside?"

 "Yeah?" Keith answered, blinking slowly, his voice muffled by the blankets.

 "Well... I’m gonna take you to my inside today."

 "Huh…” He closed his eyes sleepily.

 "What?" Lance laughed softly.  "Are you still tired?" Keith nodded.

 "I woke up a lot..."

 "Oh... why’s that...?"

 "...bad...things..."

 "Oh... you want a hug...?" Lance asked, not sure what else he could do. Keith thought for a while before nodding, rolling over and somehow opening the cocoon to make room. Lance chuckled, laying down and pulling Keith into a hug.

"How do you feel?"

 "Trrd," Keith mumbled, face pressed against Lance's shirt. He tossed the blankets back closed so they were cocooned again.

 "Poor thing...” Lance laughed gently.  "Breakfast is gonna be coming soon... you can eat, shower, get dressed, and then you can sleep on the way there."

 "Mk…" he hummed, dozing off again. Lance pulled out his phone with one hand and looked through his emails, Facebook, etc. while the other hand softly stroked Keith’s hair. Keith's chest rumbled as he fell asleep. He looked down and smiled gently, sighing.

 

A few minutes later Hunk came down with a tray of breakfast. He had, now officially since Allura started paying him in addition for his mechanics, been the new chef in the kitchen since the old one left in a huff over Hunk taking over his workspace. He had one plate with crepes he had filled with Nutella and banana slices, and another plate with a couple scrambled eggs topped with cheese. He had a glass of water instead of orange juice like usual, because though orange chocolate was good, Nutella and orange juice was not how you accomplished that.

"Is he sleeping?" He asked Lance, smiling.

 "Yeah, I don’t know if I should let him sleep or wake him up... he had more nightmares...” Lance mumbled, looking over.

 "I'm sure he can nap at your house, the sooner you get there the sooner he'll get back to sleep."

 "Yeah..." Lance gently patted Keith’s back. "Keith, breakfast," he whispered to him. Keith groaned, not wanting to get up, but did anyway. Hunk chuckled. Lance sat up and stretched. "You can sleep when we get to my inside," he said.

 "Okay..." He got up sleepily and sat down at the little table. Hunk pushed the eggs towards him first, because they were more important than the crepes. Keith needed more protein. "How do they taste?” Lance asked as he sat gingerly on the edge of the table.

 "Good,” he replied, egg stuffed in his cheek. Lance laughed gently. He wouldn’t tell Keith not to speak with his mouth full when he asked the question while the boy was eating to begin with.

“How are you feeling?”

 "Tired."

 "Okay...” he nodded, not sure why he expects another answer. “Shower after this, okay? Once you get dressed, we can go."

 Keith nodded. He ate all the eggs, and all the crepes which he really liked, and finished his water. Then he got a pair of pants and a purple t-shirt from the box squeezed between the end of his bed and the wall (they would have to wait until he had a new room to get him a dresser, nothing would fit) and went to the bathroom.

 "You wanna come with today?” Lance offered to Hunk as they waited."

 "Hmmm... If Allura says it's okay, sure. Is Shiro not?”

“No, she think’s it’ll be fine since nothing about the investigation into the previous NSF director has leaked, nothing about us at least. Wanna go up and check?"

 "Yeah," He took the tray and dishes with him when he left. About five minutes later he came back down with a smile and a thumbs up. They heard the shower turn off.

 "You don’t need to rush, Keith. Remember, take your time!” Lance reminded."

 "Well…I’m done _now_ ," he called.

 "Okay, but try to remember not to tomorrow, alright?"

“Alright.” In another minute he opened the door and came out. He had steamed up the bathroom getting dry, and his hair was still a bit damp, but he was ready.

 "I think your shirt is on backward,” Lance smiled. Keith looked down, frowning. “If you look at the inside, the little white mark should be behind you, not in front of you. Keith huffed an aggravated sigh as he tucked his arms in and turned the shirt around.

“Maybe we should ask if they could make them reversible and seamless or something,” Hunk whispered. Lance hummed in agreement.

“You ready?” the doctor asked once it looked like Keith had his shirt on properly. Keith nodded.

"So... did I tell you why we’re going to my inside today?" he asked while they were in the elevator.

 "Because Allura said it was okay?"

 "Well... there’s a reason that caused me to ask. Did I tell it to you?

 "I don't think so?"

 "Do you remember that I told you I had a cat?

 "Yeah?”

 "Well... I’m gonna take you to meet my cat."

 "Oh!"

 "Her name is blue,” Lance explained as they got off the elevator and began to walk towards the entrance.

"That’s...a color,” Keith frowned.

 "You can name your cat a color. I named her blue ‘cuz her fur looks kind of blue."

 "Oh...." He looked around at all the people working on the upper floor. He saw one of the people who worked in the textile labs that he had met recently. Lance said that they were the ones who made things he couldn’t burn. He said they hadn’t been told anything about Keith until Allura became the director. No one who worked above the two basement levels had known anything. The person waved and smiled, and Keith gave a small wave in return, but he had to pay attention to where Hunk and Lance were going, so he didn’t really look around after that.

 "You ready?” Lance asked as they approached the entrance. Keith nodded. Lance pushed open the doors with a smile. Keith squinted in the sunlight, looking around at the weird black floor and weirder...things... that were on it. Lance slowly led Keith to his car, smiling. “A little bright, I know." Keith stared around at all the weird shaped things on the black floor and followed. "This is called a car. You can go places faster than walking,” he explained as he opened the back door.

 "Why?"

"Because," Hunk started, getting into the seat next to him, "the outside is really big, is walking around to get places would take days. You can sit there, I’ll sit on the other side of you.”

“Okay…” Keith sat down.

“Turn your body so your legs are in,” Lance told him before he got into the driver’s seat. "Places can be far apart, so taking a car would be faster to get to where we wanna go,” Lance said. Hunk got into the other seat and reached over to do Keith’s seatbelt.

“This helps keep you safe,” he said, before doing his own.

 "Huh.” Keith scrunched up smaller in the seat when the car started, startled.

 "Just relax, buddy... its okay, we’re gonna be fine.” Lance chuckled as he looked at Keith through the rearview mirror.

 "It’s supposed to do that." Hunk said. Keith nodded slowly Lance began to drive out of the parking lot.

“There’s lots to look at if you look to your right, Keith." Keith leaned at the window with a deep frown, shooting back from it when his nose touched it.  

"Why can't I see that?" He asked, sounding offended.

 "See what? The glass?” Keith threw his hands up in the air before letting them land with a thud in his lap, clearly exasperated.

"What's ‘the glass’?!"

 "Relax... the stuff that separates you from outside is called glass. It’s so you can still look outside but not somehow accidentally—or intentionally—get out of the car while it’s moving."

 "Parts of things like this car, or insides, which are made of glass for you to look to the outside through, are called windows," Hunk added.

"Huh,” Keith muttered, poking it to make sure it was still there.

 "It’s not going anywhere, buddy.” Lance chuckled. “What do you think of the outside that you're seeing?"

 "Things are green”

 "Mhmm... what other colors are there?"

“Outside?”

“They don’t have to be outside, just the ones you remember.”

 "Purple and pink," he said first because he liked them, "blue," because that was Lance's cat, "red... yellow... Oran?" Is sounded like Coran's name right? Coran was orange.

 "Orange?”

 "Maybe?"

 Lance chuckled. “What do you like about outside so far?

 "It’s got colors."

 "Mhmm... anything else?"

 "It doesn’t smell bad?"

 "Okay,” Lance laughed softly. Keith was quiet, just staring out the window.

 

The drive didn't take too long before they reached a tall apartment building. Lance slid out, went around, and opened the door. Hunk undid Keith's belt from his side so Lance wouldn't have to reach. Then all three of them were out of the car.

"So... I’m on floor 3, so we have to take an elevator, just like the one back at the other inside," Lance explained as they walked to the door.

“O-okay..."

He opened the door and led them inside. Keith stared around at the unfamiliar place, keeping close to Lance. It was the middle of a weekday, so the hallway wasn’t very busy, but they still ran into two of Lance’s neighbors in the lobby.

"Who’s this?" one of the women asked with a friendly smile. Keith looked down nervously so they wouldn't see his eyes. He knew they looked wrong.

"This is Keith," Lance explained, smiling.

"Cute! Did you adopt him?" the other asked.

"Nah, he’s from... where we work."

"Aww... we’ve been looking for places to adopt."

"I'm sure you'll find somewhere," Hunk said with a smile. Keith was still looking awkwardly at the floor.

"He’s a little shy," Lance chuckled, reassuringly rubbing Keith’s back.

"Well, I’m Katherine, and this is my partner, Liz!" the taller one had dark brown hair, and the shorter had blondish hair.

"It’s very nice to meet you.”

"Hh-hi..." Keith murmured.

"He’s gonna come meet Blue." Lance said.

"Oh, is he a cat person?" Liz smiled brightly.

"He’ll like Blue, she likes everyone." Katherine laughed, looking at Keith, who was putting a lot of effort into not letting his anxiety make him smoke. He didn't even want to breathe.

"It’s okay, Keith," Lance reassured softly, putting an arm around the boy’s shoulders. Keith exhaled slightly, releasing a small puff of smoke. He looked up quickly to see if they had noticed before they could mask their surprise. They saw his eyes.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Keith!" Liz said, smiling as if she hadn’t noticed anything. Keith nodded slightly, looking down again.

"You too, girls. See you later!" Lance replied, he and Hunk beginning to walk Keith away.

"So... your first experience with new people wasn’t... bad." Lance mumbled as they got in the elevator.

"It was a start," Hunk said as he hurriedly fanned away the smoke when Keith finally let go of the breath he was holding.

"Just take deep breaths, buddy... it’s okay." Lance said softly to him. Keith nodded, still looking at the floor but slowly winding down now that the strangers were gone. Lance pressed the third floor button, and then the doors closed and they began to ascend.

"They’re nice... did they come on a little strong?"

"They saw, they’ll know..."

"They’re nice people, Keith... even if they did know I’m sure nothing bad would happen, they probably wouldn’t even think you were different."

"Why _wouldn't_ they think of me as different?"

"Because some people consider them "different" too, which isn’t always the best thing. They wouldn’t want to make someone else feel like that." Keith dropped the subject. It had become fairly obvious to him that Lance wasn't going to get that he wasn't human... it was pointless to talk about it. "Anyways..." the elevator opened, and they stepped out, "are you ready to meet a real cat?"

"Yeah." Lance led them down the hall to his apartment. He stopped at the door, pulled out his keys, and unlocked the door. Keith and Hunk both followed him in.

Blue was heard before she was seen, yowling loudly before streaking through the apartment from Lance's room and leaping onto the counter, crying for attention.

"Hey girl..." Lance chuckled as he walked over and began to softly pet her. She chirred, rubbing against his arm before climbing up it and onto his shoulders, purring and rubbing herself all over his head and face. He giggled and smiled, waving Keith over. Keith slowly approached, eyes wide at the fact that Blue made the same noise as him.

"You wanna pet her?" Lance offered, bending a little. Keith held his hand out hesitantly. Blue sniffed at him before butting her head against his hand. "You can pet her, she likes you."

Hunk took the opportunity to start filming as Blue laid down on Lance's shoulders and Keith rubbed the top of her head.

Lance noticed the camera and smiled brighter, glad the interaction would be documented.

"How does she feel?" he asked Keith.

"Soft..." he said quietly

"Mhmm... does it feel nice?" Keith nodded. "If we sit down, maybe shell sit in your lap, yeah?"

"Okay..."

Lance brought Keith to his little living room and sat on the couch.

"Is this a bed?" he asked, frowning as he sat down. It was weird bed... Blue walked across the back of the couch and hopped into Keith's lap for more pets, which he supplied.

"No, this is a couch. It’s for sitting on, but you could sleep on it if you wanted. I have a bed, too."

"Oh..." Blue started purring again, squinting her eyes and stretching. Keith purred back. Unable to help himself, Lance laughed.

"Th-thats cute!"

"Oh man, I hope my phone can pick that up," Hunk chuckled.

"She makes my noise," Keith pouted, defending himself. Lance had never made the noise....

"Yeah, she does, buddy," Lance giggled, smiling. He brushed Keith’s hair out of his eyes and smiled. Keith yawned and blinked slowly. His sleepiness was catching up to him again. "You okay?"

"Mhm,"

"Alright." Lance impulsively turned on the TV, bouncing his leg. Keith jumped at the noise, opening his eyes again suddenly and staring startled at the box.

"What...?”

"What?"

"He’s never seen a TV before," Hunk whispered, turning off his camera.

"Oh! Right, Uh... it’s... a picture box that you watch for fun."

"Okay...." he didn't really know it meant to do something 'for fun' but. Okay…

"Its... like..." Lance thought for a bit.

"It’s a way to tell stories?" Hunk offered, "'They're usually not true."

"Yeah, but they give people something to do when they’re bored."

"Oh"

"You can watch if you want."

"Okay..."

Instead, he slowly fell asleep, and blue with him, her head pillowed on his hand.

Lance looked over and smiled softly. He pulled Keith into his side and sighed.

"Wanna make cookies with me in a bit?" he asked Hunk.

"Totally. Anything else planned?"

"Face masks, maybe something else if I think of it," Lance shrugged.

"Ooo, that should be fun”

"Mhmm." Lance hummed, looking down at Keith and trying to figure out how to lay him down without waking him or Blue.

"Maybe he'll just fall over if you give him room?" Hunk suggested, guessing at what Lance was thinking about.

"Yeah, but that might wake him up... maybe... if I just..." Lance slowly slid to the side, slowly trying to lay Keith down. Keith slid, unbothered. Lance sighed in relief once he was laid on the couch peacefully.

"Okay... cookies or face masks?"

"We should do the face masks when he wakes up, baking might be a little much right now."

"Oh, okay." he nodded.

Hunk got up. "What did you plan on making?"

"Baking wise? Cookies, maybe brownies. I’m not too picky." Lance gave a wide grin.

"Why not both?" Hunk suggested with an almost mischievous grin as he headed to the kitchen.

"This is why I enjoy having you as a friend." he laughed, following.

"At least our relationship has some perks," Hunk joked.

Lance laughed and sighed.

"Yeah yeah... get the stuff out."

Hunk got out all the ingredients. "You get the bowls and prep the pans, okay?"

"Mhmm."

Lance did just as he was told, happy to be baking again since he hadn’t for a while. Hunk pulled up his brownie and chocolate chip cookie recipes side by side on his phone and split two bowls for each. "You do wet, I'll do dry, and then you can mix the cookies in the mixer while I pour the brownies." He set the stove to preheat.

“Yeah,” Lance nodded, starting on the wet mix

Hunk put both dry mixes together and then put together the brownie batter

“These are gonna taste so good...” Lance laughed.

"Heck yeah."

“How long does it bake for again...?”

"Half an hour, the cookies will be faster."

“Got it.”

Hunk put the brownies in when the oven was done preheating.

Lance stretched and sighed.

“They’re gonna taste great.”

"Yeah. Do you want help spooning out the batter?"

He nodded and smiled brightly.

Hunk got them each tablespoons and started to spoon and space out the dough. Lance followed suit, matching the spacing. Eventually, they were done, and Hunk checked the brownies with a toothpick and found they still needed some time.

"Do you have a cooling rack?"

“Yeah, it’s somewhere...”

They looked for it and found it eventually, so Hunk set it up. "Is Keith still asleep?"

“I’ll go check,” Lance left the kitchen.

Keith was curled up on the couch, back pressed to the cushions with Blue laying against his chest. She opened her eyes and stretched with a meow when Lance came over.

“Hey, beautiful...” Lance chuckled, crouching down and petting her gently. She meowed again and pressed her face into his hand. He sat on the floor and gently scratched her behind the ears. Keith stirred, sighing and opening his eyes a crack, but Lance didn’t notice until he started purring.

"Good morning." he chuckled.

"Mmm" Keith hummed, closing his eyes again. "You said that already..."

"Who says I can't say it again? How did you sleep?"

"Uh... good"

"That’s good... we’re making some food for ourselves and you, it’ll be ready later."

"Okay"

"Brownies **Unleashed**!" Hunk called from the kitchen

“Sweet!” Lance smiled and stood.

"They need to cool and firm up still before I can cut them though," Hunk laughed, "don't get _too_ excited"

"Still," Lance smiled brighter.

"What’s a brownie, why has it been freed," Keith asked tiredly.

"What do you mean 'freed'?" Lance asked, cocking an eyebrow and sitting down beside him since they had a few minutes to talk.

"He said 'unleashed.'"

"Oh, they’ve just come out of the oven! A brownie is food!"

"What’s an oven???"

"It’s something that helps you make food."

"Oh"

"Yeah, it makes things hot, just like you!" Lance gave a bright, warm smile.

"Oh... Am I an oven?"

"Well..." Lance laughed, "No. you're a person, an oven isn’t."

"Why not?"

"What do you mean?"

"Why isn't is a 'person'"

"Because it isn’t a living thing. It doesn’t have a heartbeat like you and I do. It doesn’t have arms and legs and all that... can't talk."

"Are only humans people?"

"Mhmm."

"...oh..." Now Keith was confused as to why Lance had said he was a person

"What’s wrong?"

"But I'm not a person then..."

"Y-yes you are, Keith."

"But you said _humans_ are people"

"Keith... you're a human."

"I'm a _mutant._ ”

"Well... lots of people are mutants. Everyone that has specific changes to their bodies are mutants. Blue eyes are a mutation, but there’s nothing wrong with having them. It doesn’t make you any less human." Lance smiled hopefully at Keith, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder.

"Well, why did all of that happen then?"

"Why did all of what happen?"

"Does everyone get experimented on?"

"Well... no…”

"Well, why did they start then?" Keith asked, starting to get upset. Lance looked at Hunk.

"We don’t know, Keith,” Hunk sighed, “but it was wrong of them to do those things to you.”

"What if they come back?"

"They’re not gonna come back, Keith. We’re gonna make sure of that," Lance said.

"That's what Shiro's job is, keeping them away," Hunk added

"Oh." Keith relaxed a little.

"And well help too, of course." Lance smiled again, rubbing Keith’s back. "Do you want a brownie once they’re cool...?" Keith nodded slowly.

"Do you two wanna take a nap while everything bakes and cools?" Hunk asked mischievously. "I can keep an eye on things." Lance narrowed his eyes at Hunk.

"Are you completely sure?"

"Yeah. Your kitchen is pretty standard, I'm sure I can wash the dishes myself."

"Hmm... don’t burn my complex down." Lance stretched.

Hunk chuckled and went back to the kitchen while Keith stretched also, mimicking Lance. Blue climbed up on to Lance's shoulders when the boy sat up

"Hey, pretty lady," Lance chuckled as he pet Blue softly.

"I don't know if there's room for you here," Keith muttered, rubbing his eyes.

"On the couch?"

"Mhm" he nodded.

"Well... we could go sleep in my bed."

"Oh, okay. Where's that?" He looked around. Nothing in the room looked like a bed, and he didn't think he saw one in that other room either…

"Well..." Lance stood carefully to keep blue on his shoulders, "it’s in another room. Want me to show you to it?"

Keith nodded and got up from the couch. Lance slowly walked Keith to his bedroom, opening the door and walking in. Keith thought it was weird having a room just for a bed, but he followed. The bed was bigger than his and less colorful.

"We're gonna get you a bed like this one soon, okay?" Lance said as he gestured Keith over to his bed. Keith nodded. Blue jumped down from Lance's shoulders and padded over to it.

Lance scooted back once on the bed and sat in the middle in front of the pillows. Keith laid down next to him.

"There’s a blanket at the end of the bed if you get cold," he told Keith, crossing his arms comfortably.

"Okay"

Blue tried to lay down stretched over both of them, and Keith scooted closer against Lance to make it easier for her. Lance looked over and smiled gently.

"If you wake up before I do, you don’t have to wait in here. The brownies should be ready then."

"m’kay," he murmured, closing his eyes and falling asleep. He leaned into Lance, so Lance wrapped an arm loosely around him, allowing Keith to snuggle in closer. Blue stood up and lay down on a pillow above Lance’s head.

 

 

Lance yawned and let his arms stretch out above his as he gradually awoke. His eyes eventually opened, and he blinked in order to adjust and clear his vision. He saw that Keith was still asleep, with his head pillowed on his shoulder, hands loosely tangled in his shirt. Lance smiled sleepily, running his fingers through the boy’s hair, getting a few tangles out. Keith must have forgotten to brush it after he showered.

Keith nuzzled into him and began to purr. Hunk tapped on the door softly, wanting to check on them

"Yeah...?" he called, yawning. Hunk opened the door as quietly stepped in. He grinned when he saw Keith.

"That's adorable"

"Shush..." Lance laughed softly, looking down at Keith.

"You know what," Hunk began quietly, "it might make a cute video~"

"Ah, I look like shit..."

"It’s _authentic_ ," Hunk teased, pulling out his phone and starting to record. "Is this prescription cuddle time?" He asked jokingly.

"Shut up..." Lance giggled. "Prescription cuddle time... sure."

"It’s nice that he warmed up to you," he said, tiptoeing closer.

"Yeah, really is... makes things easier..."

"He purrs," the man whispered when he got to the bed, knowing Keith was _definitely_ loud enough to be picked up on the audio. Lance laughed, smiling.

"It’s so weird, but it’s cute..."

Blue stretched out, resting her paws on Keith's shoulder.

"Maybe that's why she likes him so much

"Maybe... I wonder what else he’s hiding..."

"A love for brownies?" Hunk suggested.

"Yeah," Lance chuckled, "hopefully."

Keith stretched his arms out sleepily and determinedly wrapped the around Lance the best he could, making him laugh softly and smile.

"Maybe he's part koala," Hunk whispered jokingly. Lance rolled his eyes, though he was smirking at the idea.

"You’re being stupid."

"I’m being entertaining," Hunk replied. Blue got up and stretched, meowing loudly before walking on Keith, waking him up.

"Blue..." Lance sighed, gently trying to wave her off.

Blue meowed and walked onto Lance. Keith groaned and opened his eyes.

"Hey, Keith... how’d you sleep?" he asked, petting Blue.

"Good"

"That’s good. You wanna try a brownie?"

"Sure."

Lance stretched again and sat up, looking down at Keith.

"They’re in the kitchen, so getting up would be ideal unless Hunks gonna be nice and bring the brownies here," he gave Hunk a bright smile.

"Not my bed, not my business," Hunk shook his head, disapproving of eating something that could stain all over the sheets. He handed Lance the recording phone and went to get them each brownies

"Thanks, Hunk!"

"Sure, buddy," he called from the hallway. Keith turned onto his stomach with a groan and somehow wedged himself beneath the pillows.

 "Yeah," came his barely audible reply

"Something wrong...? Or are you just comfy like that?"

"Comf."

"Okay, just checking, buddy."

Hunk walked in with two brownies on napkins.

"I leave you alone for two minutes and Keith's entire upper half just disappears? I can't believe it." Lance giggled and handed the phone back to Hunk.

"Thanks," he took the brownies and nudged Keith with his knee.

Keith sat up from his impromptu nest, hair sticking up in interesting directions.

Lance chuckled and set the brownie down on his own lap before he carefully tried to fix Keith’s hair.

"You wanna try it?"

Keith nodded, leaning his head a bit for Lance

"You can have the one I’m holding then, take it and try it."

Keith took it, and looked at it, and looked between Hunk and Lance. Hunk took a bite out of his to demonstrate, which seemed to solve whatever dilemma Keith was having about how to eat the brownie. He ate some of it

"So? What do you think?" Lance asked after a moment.

It was still in his mouth, so he just nodded a lot, smiling a little. He liked it.

"That’s good." Lance smiled at him, giving Hunk a thumbs up.

"It chews soft," Keith noted when he could talk.

"Yeah," Lance began to eat the brownie that was in his lap.

"What was that other thing you wanted to do?" Hunk asked Lance.

"Face masks."

"What are those?" Keith asked.

"It’s a kind of stuff that you put on your face and it helps your skin."

"Huh. We do that next?"

"Mhmm, after the brownies are finished."

"Do you really expect us to split a pan of brownies three ways for lunch?" Hunk laughed

"Hmm... after half the brownies are gone."

"You’re going to make him sick, dude.

"Then I’ll eat half the brownies!"

"It’s your funeral!" Hunk laughed. Keith frowned, the rest of the brownie in his mouth.

"What's a funeral?"

Lance sighed and looked at Hunk.

"How are you gonna fix this?"

"Well," Hunk took a deep breath. "When someone dies, people that knew the person get together to share stories about them and say goodbye. We call them funerals."

"I’m not gonna die, though. It’s just an expression." Lance hurriedly clarified afterward in case.

"Yeah, eating too many brownies might make him sick, so eating half the pan is a bad idea, and 'its your funeral' is something you say to someone having a bad idea to make it seem like what will happen will be worse than it really will be." Hunk winced a little. That was a really complicated explanation, but Keith nodded in understanding anyway.

 "Maybe I’ll eat one more brownie, then." Lance looked away. he didn't even know if he scared Keith or not, he couldn't read him.

"Okay, as long as you're not spoiling your lunch!" Hunk called, leaving to get Lance another brownie

“Yeah yeah,” Lance sighed softly.

Keith bumped their shoulders together, leaning into Lance

He looked over and wrapped an arm around Keith.

"You okay...?"

"Mhm," he nodded, closing his eyes

"Did... did what Hunk say scare you...?"

"No?"

"Okay, good..."

Hunk came back with a brownie and gave it to Lance.

 "Thanks."

Lance took the brownie and started breaking off pieces, eating them.

"Do you want any more, Keith?" Keith shook his head.

“I don’t want to feel sick.”

“See, he’s _smart_ about what he eats,” Hunk laughed, casting a faux-accusatory look at Lance.

"Oh shut up." Lance stubbornly continued eating.

Blue curled up in the space between Lance and Keith's thighs, and Keith reached down to slowly pet blue, smiling a little.

"Would you want to see Blue more often if you could?" Hunk asked, trying to gauge the therapy cat situation. Keith nodded.

"Would you like one to keep you company?"

"Like... Blue?" Hunk nodded.

"Your cat would be like blue, but they wouldn’t look the same," Lance added.

"She'd stay in your room with you and around the area our offices are in," Hunk told him.

"That’d be nice..."

Lance pulled out his phone and pulled up the picture of the cat they decided on.

"Is it okay if she looks like that?" he asked, showing Keith the photo.

Keith nodded, surprised.

"She's red."

"Mhmm..." Lance nodded, smiling.

"Her fur is curly like your hair," Hunk chuckled.

"My hair looks like that?" Keith asked, frowning

"Yeah, it’s cute." Lance laughed.

"Oh."

Hunk frowned, not knowing why Keith wouldn't know what his hair looks like.

"Do you want to do facemasks now?' he asked Lance.

"Yeah," he nodded.

"Okay, show Keith the bathroom?"

Lance hummed in agreement and got out of bed.

"Come on, Keith."

Keith followed him and he led Keith into the bathroom, where he had all sorts of skincare products lining the counter.

Keith looked at the mirror on the wall with a frown, and then back at Lance, and then to the mirror again.

"What?"

"Why are you there?"

"Because that’s my reflection?"

Keith didn't know what that meant.

"Have... Keith, have you never seen yourself before?"

"I can see myself..." he said, looking down, holding out his arms to prove it.

"but... have you never seen your reflection...?" Lance pointed at the mirror to help. He looked at his reflection.

"Oh," he muttered. It was weird.... "So... you see this? All the time?"

"Every morning... you’ve never seen this...?"

"...no..." he said quietly.

"I..." Lance took a breath. "Okay..."

"S-sorry..." Keith murmured.

"Why are you sorry...? You have no reason to be..."

"Because you're upset now...!"

"You don’t need to apologize, Keith... it isn’t your fault..."

Keith stared down at the sink. He was the reason that Lance was upset now though... he shouldn't have asked…

"Keith... look at me please."

Keith didn't want to, but he picked up his head and stared at Lance's shirt

"My eyes, please..."

Keith looked him in the eyes before glancing down again. He didn't like... eye contact... that’s what Coran had called it.

"You didn't make me upset... you are not the reason I’m upset... I’m upset at who came before me... who hurt you before I got here and helped you... you shouldn’t feel at fault for what they did to you... you shouldn’t feel at fault for not knowing something or understanding something..."

"Okay..." he said quietly, eyes drifting further down to the floor

"Do you want a hug...?" Keith nodded slowly. Lance wrapped his arms around Keith and rubbed his back slowly. "Are you okay...? I’m sorry I upset you..."

Keith nodded, cheek pressed against Lance's shoulder

"Do you want anything...? Anything else to eat... are you thirsty...? Are you still tired...?"

"'m good...'

"Alright..." Lance mumbled, running his fingers through Keith’s hair.

"What do we do in here?' Keith asked, not pulling away

"Well... I was gonna grab the stuff to do face masks, but you can hug me until you're done. The face masks can wait." Lance said softly, smiling a little.

"Okay," he held on for a few more seconds before letting go.

"I’m sorry I made you upset, Keith," Lance said, reaching forward and brushing the hair from Keith’s eyes.

"It's okay," he had felt worse from feeling he had upset Lance.

"Do you like how you look in the reflection...?"

He glanced at himself and put a hand to his left eye. "This one changed," he said. It was a deeper red than the other, which had a ring of orange near the pupil.

"What do you mean it changed?"

"They took it out and now it looks different. It's darker."

“Th-they took out your eye?”

Keith nodded. "That's why I knew they were red."

“Th-they took out your— o-okay, wow.” Lance breathed. The idea was unsettling and just wrong to him.

"I-it’s back though," Keith said hurriedly, trying to keep Lance from getting upset again.

“I know, it’s just... what they did was wrong, Keith...” Keith nodded.

“It just upsets me that they hurt you so badly...” Keith looked back at the floor.

“So... do you wanna do a face mask with us or just watch?”

"Mask..."

“Alright.”

Lance smiled and grabbed the stuff before he began to lead Keith out.

Keith followed him. Hunk gave Lance a concerned look when Keith wouldn't notice. He had overheard some of the conversation.

"It’s okay," Lance mouthed in response as they reached him.

Hunk nodded.

"Is that the stuff?"

"Yeah, it’s the stuff." Lance laughed.

"So what does it do?" Keith asked, looking at the tubs

"It helps clean out your skin and makes it healthy." Lance explained.

“The shower does that," Keith said with a small, confused frown.

"Well... the shower helps, but this gets deep into your skin."

"Is skin... **deep**?”

"Not that deep, but this stuff gets out what showering can't."

"Oh. Okay."

"Mhmm." Lance passed the container to Hunk so he could apply the stuff first.

Hunk re-tied his headband so it would actually hold his bangs back and passed the tub back to Lance when he was done.

"Film this," Lance said as he turned to Keith. "You said you wanted to do it, right?"

"Yeah."

Hunk took out his phone and started it while Lance grabbed a bandana from the table nearby. after using it to keep Keith's bangs back, he began to carefully apply the gel mask to Keith's skin, careful not to get it in any unwanted areas or anything.

It felt weird and cold on him, but it wasn't anything bad. Once Lance finished with Keith, he applied it to his own skin.

"Now what?'

"We wait."

"Until it almost dries," Hunk elaborated.

"Should I make it dry?' Keith asked "I'm good at drying"

"Nah, it’s more fun to wait," Lance smiled.

"Oh." Lance nodded, looking around.

"What should we do while we wait?" Hunk asked

"Hmm... I didn't think of that."

"Any games?"

"Hmm..." Lance thought for a moment. "No clue."

"Kids games?'

He shrugged.

"Do you have any puzzles?'

"Maybe...?"

"We could see if we can do a puzzle, that might be neat."

"Yeah, you'd have to dig through my closet. That’s where everything is, and where I’m not,” Lance winked.

Hunk snorted. "Okay buddy," he handed Lance the phone to film and went to dig through the closet. He came back with a deck of cards

"What are we gonna play?"

"Go fish?"

"Hmm... war." Lance gave a determined look.

“Okay, sure,” Hunk chuckled. “Take out the Aces and face cards and shuffle while I write a number line.”

“Wait what?”

“It’ll be easier to learn.”

“Oh, sure.”

“Learn what?” Keith asked.

“A game.”

“Like Coran’s games?”

“I don’t know if you’ve played this one with him before,” Hunk chuckled, writing a number line on some paper for Keith to look at while they played. Lance was sat at the small, four person table in the corner.

“Oh…?”

“So, all the cards have a number on them. Lance and I will each have a stack of cards. We’ll each put one down at the same time, but they’re always face down before we put them down so we won’t know what they are until then. Whichever card has the bigger number wins, and the person with that card gets to put both of them in his new pile.”

“Okay?”

“You can use this,” Hunk said, showing Keith the number line he had finished, “to tell us who has the bigger number. When you get a hang of it you can play against one of us. Sound fun?”

“Sure.”

“Okay, Lance is done shuffling the cards. Let’s sit down.”

Lance smirked at Hunk when he and Keith got to the table.

“You’re such a teaching nerd.”

“Oh shut up.”

They played for a long time, as War can only ever be played, really, with a break for lunch. Blue spent the time going between sitting in Lance or Keith’s laps and laying on the table making it difficult to play the game and knocking Lance’s discard pile to the floor with her tail.

It was a good, eventful day.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> funnies i have shared with ER and will share with u also  
> Matt, who has only been mentioned so this might give some context to his purpose: MY WORMS WONT DIGEST PLASTIC BUT THEY'RE GOING DEEPER IN SOIL THAN WORMS EVER BEFORE  
> Allura: what the Fuck does that Even Mean  
> but also  
> Allura, to Lance: You know I'm really glad I let Matt do his research here because now whenever this legal case is stressing me out too much I can go to the worm room for some peace.  
> Lance: Worm Room and Chill? :3  
> Allura: Why must you ruin this for me
> 
> i hope you all appreciate this  
> if y'all ever read my other vld big thing u know i've loved my pre-canon content version of matt for since season 1 so. Here He Comes (he doesn't really)


	8. Chapter 8

That morning was going to be very special, everyone but Keith knew. Hunk had changed out the door to his cell a while ago with something that would work security-wise, but also had a special hatch in the bottom, and Keith could open the door himself from the inside.

Everything was ready for the cat.

"Did you turn the camera on?" Lance asked as they finished the final preparations for the cat, who was quiet in the carrier unless someone's hand was near the latches.

"Um, duh?" Pidge replied, turning it on him.

Lance laughed softly.

“Just making sure... are we ready?”

“Yep,” Hunk replied, giving a thumbs up.

“Okay,” Lance nodded.

He absentmindedly waved Katie and Hunk along as he slowly moved forward and opened the door. Keith was asleep in bed, underneath a bundle of blankets, hugging a pillow. His face wasn't even visible with all his hair. Lance chuckled softly. He slowly padded over to the bed and sat gingerly on the mattress.

“Keith...” he called gently after a bit, running a hand through Keith’s tangled locks. Keith stirred, yawning and turning a little to look at Lance. “We have something for you when you wanna sit up, alright?” Lance said, giggling.

"Okay?" He scooted up, looking questioningly at Hunk and Katie when he saw them. Lance motioned for hunk to open the carrier, excited for Keith’s reaction.

Hunk set the carrier down at the end of the bed, the cat inside meowing as he reached to open the door. Keith gasped audibly, hands held in little fists against the bottom half of his face, like Hunk did sometimes, when the ginger LaPerm came loudly out. She sat down, looking around at all the humans.

Lance laughed at Keith’s pricelessly cute reaction.

“We thought you could use some company when we aren’t around, Keith!” he smiled, rubbing his back softly. Keith was speechless as the cat walked around the bed sniffing everything. Then it lay down against where his thigh was under the blankets. He reached his hand out for the cat to sniff. She sniffed.

“Do you like her...?” Lance asked softly, smiling. Keith nodded very fast, which only made him laugh more, and he slowly rubbed his hand up and down Keith’s back.

“We haven’t really chosen a name for her, we were waiting for you to decide since she’ll be your cat.”

She rubbed her head against Keith's hand so he rubbed her forehead. She was so soft...

"Red," he said eventually.

“Alright,” Lance nodded and smiled, “Red it is, then.” He wrapped an arm around Keith and moved forward to pet Red.

"She's really mine?"  His eyes were tearing up emotionally.

“Mhmm... yours to love and pet... just like Blue is mine.” Lance smiled as he pulled Keith into a side hug.

"Wow," he said in a hushed, slightly overwhelmed voice. Red climbed into his lap and head-butted his chest, so he pet her more.

“I’m glad you like her, Keith...”

Lance gave Hunk and Katie a thumbs up and sighed contently.

"Thank you," he said quietly, hugging Lance. Lance smiled brightly and hugged back.

“We’ve had the idea for a while, Coran’s been training her.”

Red sat in Keith's lap, snurgling the fuzzy blanket and purring loudly.

“I’m glad you like her, Keith.”

"She’s so soft and cute..." Red laid down on him and he went back to petting the top of her head.

“Yeah... hey, maybe I could bring Blue in one day so they can meet.” Lance smiled.

"Two cats..." Keith whispered. Katie chuckled.

Hunk left to bring in the cat tree, food/water dishes, and box of toys they had gotten with Red. The base of the tree was small, so it fit next to Keith’s bed just fine. The toy box would fit easily under his bed as well, and the litter box was in a small closet down the hall that had also been given a new door for easy cat access. 

"So this can go next to your bed, probably," Hunk said, putting the tree there. "It's a place for her to hang out."

"If you ever wanna change where it goes, feel free to," Lance stated.

"Yeah, it's not hard to move or anything."

"Red will be able to leave your...room, whenever she wants, too. There's a little door for her in yours that only opens for her, there's a little thing in her collar that unlocks it."

"Do you have any questions, Keith?" Lance asked after a couple minutes.

Keith shook his head.

"Okay." he smiled at Keith and softly pet red where the other didn’t.

Keith purred back at Red, which prompted her to get up and stretch and rub herself against him more. Pidge grinned and stopped the video.

"This is so fucking cute," Lance whispered to Katie, smiling wider.

"People are gonna love this one," she grinned. Allura had put her in charge of managing the YouTube channel, and things had been going pretty well considering how controversial Keith's situation was. They hadn't started involving themselves in the media until fairly recently. It had been a few days since the federal investigation into the previous NSF director reported that he had uncovered the project he had funded under the table. Enough media coverage later and Project K was known. In order to stop any wild speculations before they could start, Allura, diplomatic as always, met with the press to explain the situation. After that, Katie uploaded the first two videos: the introduction to everyone, and Keith's first time outside. The next few videos wouldn’t be uploaded as quickly.

"Really, who wouldn’t,” Lance grinned, running a hand through Keith’s hair out of habit. Keith leaned into Lance's hand with a small smile. He felt warm and happy inside.

  
  


It was mid-afternoon, and Katie was in the basement level walking around with three large sheets of paper. They were both floor plans: one for the original, one for the first renovation, and one for the second, the current build they were in. She and one of the interns had been scanning them when they noticed a room had been blocked off during the second remodeling, but clearly still existed, as the walls weren't torn down or anything. Katie was going to investigate, and Allura approved, because who knew what they could have hidden in the old room. She passed Keith's door and heard him reading out loud to Red. Another way the cat helped since he got embarrassed easily. Coran, Hunk, and Lance had all been working on small lessons with him, but it wouldn’t be until they found a qualified teacher that he’d be able to have any real class. She knew they were searching, though.

She looked at the floorplans and looked at the vents. She unscrewed the cover with a coin and boosted herself up. This should land her in the closed-off room. When she dropped down in the room she put the flashlight of her phone on. To her, the room t looked like storage. She saw the door and tried to open it. With a crack, the plaster they had spread over the cracks broke away, and the door opened out to the hallway.

"Huh. I guess they just disguised it. Lazy," she muttered to herself. Now the light from the hall illuminated the room. There were... Robots (?) in parts and whole scattered, and shelves further back. She aimed her phone at the shelves and walked over. There were some cloudy looking jars. She picked one up and shined the light in it. She dropped the jar with a shriek, and it shattered. The red eye rolled around in the broken glass.

Shiro, Lance, and Hunk quickly appeared in the doorway.

“What happened,” Shiro asked urgently. Keith came out of his room cautiously, silently standing behind the men.

"I uh... Found... Some stuff..." She said, backing away from the broken glass, her voice a pitch higher than normal

"What’d you find? Are you okay?" Lance walked quickly into the old storage room.  

"Organs?"

"Or-- what?!"

She shined her light on the eye on the floor, and the... Something else that was in a clearer jar on the shelf.

"I... oh-oh my god, okay." Lance paled at the sight of the eye. His mind returned to the conversation he’d had with Keith before about it.

Katie looked at one of the larger jars.

"Is that a fucking  **Hand** ?!" She squeaked.

"What?!" Lance followed her words and looked around, abandoning the shattered jar for the moment.  

She shined her light on it. It was a hand. A small one, wrist and all. Maybe the size of a ten-year-olds. Shiro grimaced, remembering what Keith had said when they met. Keith wasn't looking at the jars, though. As the others had moved into the room, he had gotten to the doorway. He stood frozen, staring at the piles of robots, some half melted but plenty  **perfectly fine** .

"Did you ever uncover this in the files?" Lance asked softly, partially distracted.

"No, but…. They might have put them in here, that's why Allura wanted me to check this out when we noticed the floorplans didn't match up." She looked around. "There definitely wasn't anything about these things," she poked one of the bots. It clicked, then suddenly whirred to life and lunged in her and Lance's direction.

Fire erupted from the ground in front of Katie, and the robot face planted into it as it became dense and solidified. The wall folded around it like paper and crushed it, unused bullets firing from their casings from pressure and heat, deafening bangs, all contained in the crushing pocket Keith had formed around it. When the blasts ended, the fire dissipated, leaving a charred pile of blown-out metal.

Keith stood utterly still, gripping the door frame with white knuckles and not breathing.

"H-holy shit..." Lance looked up at where Keith was. He made his way over to him as quickly as possible.

"Hey... lemme take you back to your room, okay?" he said softly, moving his hand to brush Keith’s hair away from his face. Keith took a shaky breath, eying the other robots on the floor.

"There's more of them."

"it’s okay... well take care of them, alright?" Lance began to try and slowly bring Keith away from the doorway. Guards closest to their area of the building had started running into the hallway to see what had happened.

"They’ll  _ hurt  _ you," his voice cracked. Shiro went over and put a hand on Keith's shoulder.

"We'll be careful, we won't touch them,” this he said looking partially at those who had shown up already, “everything will be fine."

"We’ll be okay... let’s go back to your room, okay...? We can go read together, you can show me the words you need help on, okay?" Lance continued. He hated seeing Keith like this more than anything. He slowly rubbed his back, hoping it would help at least to some degree. Keith shook his head, still staring into the room. He had to make sure none of them got hurt.

"Keith... come on, okay...? We’ll be alright," Lance said softly, ruffling his hair now.

"But you've never fought them..."

"It’s okay... well figure it out, alright? We’ll find a way to power them down and move them. Katie might be able to do it now that she knows that they’re still active, Hunk too. They’re smart, buddy..."

He was still really anxious about it, but then Red decided to see why everyone was in the hall and came out of his room meowing. He quickly scooped her up before she could walk into the new area and endanger herself.

"Here... wanna show me the words you’re having trouble with...?" Lance asked again, trying to lead him away once more.Keith nodded slowly and backed away. He had to keep Red from getting near those things. The thought of one of those targeting her made his throat tighten painfully. Lance slowly led him back to his room and brought him to the bed.

"Alright... take out the book you read last and show me what you’re having trouble with, okay?" he said softly as he watched him. Keith put Red down in the warm divet she had made laying in his blankets and sat down, picking up _The Velveteen Rabbit_. He showed Lance all the highlighted words, but he was too anxious about what could be happening in the other room and how many ways the others could get hurt to really pay attention to anything. Lance noticed Keith wasn’t paying pretty quickly and put down the book.

"Keith...?"

"M?"

"Everything’s gonna be okay... now that we know how they work, we’ll have a better chance at stopping them."

Keith nodded, looking down at Red

"Do you wanna sleep...? Are you hungry? Do you wanna take a walk outside?"

That was a lot of questions at once to think about. He felt too anxious to sleep, and lunch hadn't been that long ago.

"Can Red go outside?" He asked quietly. He had to keep her away from the bots… she didn’t know any better.

"Yeah, she should be able to." Lance nodded gently.

"Okay"

Lance stood and walked to the box of things for red. He fished out a leash and brought it back.

"We're gonna put her on a leash, alright?"

"What’s it do?"

"It’ll make sure she doesn’t go too far," he explained softly as he clipped the leash to reds collar. Keith nodded. "Ready...?" Lance asked as he stood. Keith nodded again, standing and picking up Red, who murped at him. "Do you wanna hold the leash or do you want me to?"

"I haven't done it before," he replied, justifying that Lance should hold it.

"Alright," Lance said, nodding. He kept the leash in his hand and began to walk up to the courtyard with Keith.

It was sunny and warm outside, with a light breeze. It was the beginning of fall now, but it was the middle of the day. It wouldn’t get cold until evening.

"Do you wanna go somewhere in particular?" Lance asked.

"I like the fountain."

"Alright... but Red won’t like getting wet, so be careful." Lance reminded, smiling softly as he began to lead them to the fountain.

"Okay'

Lance sat on the grass near the fountain once they arrived.

"You can put red down, she won’t go far," he said to Keith, smiling up at them.

Keith set her down and sat with his shoulder against the wall of the fountain

"So... how are you feeling?"

"I don't like that those are back..."

"Can I ask a question, Keith...?" Keith nodded. Red hopped out of his lap and put her paws up on the fountain wall to look into the water

"What were they for exactly...?" Lance knew they had to be for another one of someone’s ‘experiments’....

"Fighting."

"How strong are they?"

Keith shrugged, not really knowing what that would mean for those things.

"Alright... I’m sorry they put you through that, Keith..."

Keith nodded. Red meowed at the water

"How have things been with Coran?"

"Good. I know feeling words now."

"That’s good. So, how do you feel now?"

Keith thought for a bit. "Anxious..." he said, petting red's back as she stuck her paw in the water

"Ah... it’ll be okay, Keith. Everyone’s gonna be fine." Lance moved over a little to brush the hair from Keith’s eyes. 

“But what if another one wakes up?”

“They’ll be too careful for that to happen, don’t worry. I’m sure Katie can find whatever the other people used on the machines to control them to shut them down completely. It’ll be alright.”

Keith nodded, swallowing past the lump in his throat.

"Is there anything else you wanna do? When we go inside, do you wanna sit in my office with me and keep me company?"

"Can Red come with?"

"Of course she can," Lance said, smiling.

"Okay." Red jumped up onto the stone side of the fountain, where it was warm from the sun, and rubbed her head on Keith's shoulder. He pet her more

"You wanna pick her up so we can go or do you wanna stay here for a bit longer?"

"She looks comfy..."

"Alright." Lance chuckled and sighed, taking out his phone instinctively and beginning to go through his social media.

Keith kept petting Red, purring back at her when she started.

Lance laughed softly at the interaction. He pulled up the camera feature on twitter and started secretly recording.

"He’s purring at red again... never gets old," he whispered as he filmed them.

Keith glanced at the phone for a moment, blushing.

"Can you give them a smile, Keith?" Lance asked softly, chuckling. He turned back and smiled a bit, canine fangs poking past his lips. "Cute..." he chuckled before the video stopped. He watched it back and smiled before captioning and posting it. " _daily Keith: purring at red_ "

Pidge had made a little twitter account to go with the YouTube channel that all of them could use some time the week before, and people were seeming to like it. Red stood up and stretched, climbing up onto Keith's shoulder. 

"I think she's ready to go inside," Keith said.

“Alright.” Lance pushed himself off the ground and sighed softly, smiling. “Inside we go.” Keith followed him. Lance took him and red back down to his office, in a different area than the hidden room and Keith’s cell. 

"Anything you wanna play or watch while you’re in here?" he asked as he took a seat at his desk.

"Can we watch the, uh.... animals?"

" _ Nature _ ?" he chuckled.

"Yeah!"

"Alright, buddy," Lance said, pulling up a documentary for Keith to watch while he worked. The episode was about Hippos, which Keith hadn't seen yet before. They were, apparently, fucking * **amazing** * Lance looked up after a little to find Keith lost in the documentary. He laughed softly, took out his phone, and took a picture. He opened twitter and posted it.

_ "Daily Keith pt. 2: I think he found a new favorite animal _ "

"Are there any more hippos?" Keith asked when the episode ended. Lance let himself laugh at the question.

"You want another video?" he assumed. Keith nodded.

"Alright," Lance said as he pulled up another video for Keith. This one was about dolphins. They were neat, but not as awesome as hippos. Lance continue working while occasionally putting on new videos for Keith. Eventually, it was time for dinner, and Hunk poked his head into lance's office since Keith wasn't in his room.

"Hey”

"Hey," Lance replied, looking up. He didn’t realize what time it was.

"It's dinner time, I left the tray in his room."

"Oh, alright." Lance nodded as he looked at the time.

"Come on, Keith," he sighed as he stood and stretched.

"Okay," Keith said, scooping red up out of his lap so he could get up and follow lance.

Lance took him back to his room, where the food was waiting.

It was tomato soup with half a grilled cheese sandwich. Keith thanked Hunk softly when he passed. Keith put Red down when she started getting fussy and she went up into her tree next to his bed

Lance sat next to Keith at the table when he began to eat.

"Do you feel better?" he asked.

"Nothing's happened," he said, the door in the hallway was closed, so whatever they had to do must have been over already.

"Yeah... that’s good." Lance nodded.

Keith ate the food

"How is the food?"

'Yummy'

"That’s good." he smiled.

Keith finished the soup and sandwich.

"I guess that’s good, then." Lance chuckled and instinctively took out his phone again.

Keith looked over at Red, blinking sleepily. She mewed at him.

"Are you tired?"

Keith nodded slowly. Reading took a lot of focus, so between that and the panic from earlier, he was pretty wiped sooner than usual.

"You wanna sleep?"

He nodded again

"You want me to stay or leave?"

'You can stay'

"Where do you want me to be? Stay at the table?"

"Can we hug?"

"Mhmm," Lance hummed, laughing softly. He stood. Keith only ever used the word ‘hug’, but Lance knew he meant cuddle. “Come on, bud."

Keith snuggled in contently, head tucked under Lance's chin. Red stretched with a meow and jumped down from the tree onto the bed to lay against Keith's back

"Goodnight, Keith."

'Goodnight' he said softly as he drifted off to sleep

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This next chapter will be a fun read so Look Forward To It :3c


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember that I love all of you :)

It was a few weeks later when Allura was able to get a court date. Since the closest federal courthouse was in the state capitol, about a four hours’ drive away, they would be gone just about the whole day. Everyone was going aside from Shiro and Keith, each as witnesses to different aspects of what had been going on or covered up. Allura’s team had just been let out for a recess to gather more evidence and thoughts. Lance turned on his phone after having to have it turned off in the courtroom. As his turned on, he heard Allura’s phone buzz with messages.

"Geez, how popular are you?" he teased gently before his phone was also bombarded with all kinds of notifications also. He looked over, seeing that Allura had several missed phone calls and texts, but it was the email notification that gave them a title to what was going on.

***Security Breach***

It was from one of the guards, not Shiro.

"o-oh shit, we-we gotta go, we gotta go," Lance said as he read through all the panicked messages from the interns that were still in the building. Heavily armed men had broken into the building; Keith was gone.

"I'll get them to postpone the rest of the trial." her demeanor was stern and business-like, as it needed to be in this situation. Hunk and Pidge came running up, clearly having also just read the news. Hunk had already started crying. "I'm on it," she said, already on her way to the judge, before he could say anything.

"F-fuck..." Lance breathed shakily as he slowly scrolled through the messages again and again.

He tried calling Shiro, but no one answered. Soon, they got a new email of everyone who was fine and everyone who was injured, along with the extent of their injuries. Several people had been shot, and Shiro was in surgery to repair a punctured intestine, but that was the extent of it. The police had lost the car with Keith in the chase, it seemed there were two decoys fleeing the scene in different directions, but they were working on getting the license plate numbers from security cameras in the parking lot and along the streets. Red had been found hiding under Keith's bed by one of the police investigators.

"I-I gotta leave, I gotta talk to the officers and grab Red..." Lance mumbled, already trying to head off to leave.

"Hey, hey," hunk said, trying to be the calm one even though he was really not feeling it at the moment, "Allura's working on it, besides, we carpooled we have to go together."

"Gimmie your keys, I'll gun it," Pidge added, trying to lighten the mood.

'Absolutely not," Hunk stated. "A minivan is just about the _last_ thing you should be driving. A smart car, if anything."

"I-I gotta go, hunk, I gotta get Red and-and I gotta talk to the officers and I gotta get this sorted out," Lance insisted. He wasn't where he needed to be now, and it was one of the times where he truly felt lost.

"Lance, Lance we _are_ going to go, we just need to wait for Allura to postpone the trial first so we can leave."

Lance bit down on his bottom lip and forced a nod. Hunk pulled him into a firm hug.

"We're gonna find him, we'll get him back, it'll be fine. Keith will be fine."

"We'll find him so quick they won't even have time to do anything," Katie added. Then Allura came back, Coran following.

"We can go."

They all piled into Hunk's minivan and sped down the freeway.

Lance held his phone shakily in his hand. He was going through social media. Hunk had given Allura his keys so he could sit in the back with Lance. He pulled the other into a side hug and rubbed up and down his arm.

"Wh-what if we don’t find him...? What if they kill him first...?" Lance mumbled after a bit, his words wavering. Tears were evident in his voice.

"It wouldn't do them any good to kill him, he's not a witness in the criminal case like we are and we already have all the records we need to convict them. I think they just wanted him back; who knows how long they've been planning this."

He sniffed and lowered his head so hunk couldn't see his face.

"a-ah, fuck..."

"We'll find him, and we'll help him if they've done anything, and he'll be fine. They'll be in jail soon,"

Lance sniffed again and nodded slightly.

"O-okay... okay..."

Hunk gave a little squeeze.

"I-I’m gonna need to take Red home with me..."

"Yeah," he nodded. "I'm gonna set up a room when we get back, just. If anything's happened." If he had been injured...

"a-a room?" Lance repeated.

"In... in case he needs medical attention...?" hunk winced

"o-of... of course..."

"Just to be safe. It'd be better to not have to go to a hospital if they did something...."

"Y-yeah... he’d... he’d draw attention..."

"And we'd need extra security, which would be more of a hassle than just doing it all ourselves..."

"Yeah..." Lance rubbed at his wet eyes.

Hunk gave him another squeeze.

"Who knows, they might catch them by the time we get there, it'll be a few hours."

"O-okay..." Lance sighed and let himself relax into hunk. He suppressed a yawn.

All the stress from the trial and now Keith was getting to him.

Hunk shifted closer so that Lance could nap on him if he wanted.

"F-fuck, I hate this..." Lance mumbled.

"I know buddy, I know..."

"C-can we even do anything...? To help?"

"I don't know, I think the police are in charge of it. You're taking care of Red, though, and I have things to get ready, it's not like we're doing nothing...."

"I know, but... but still..."

"We can't do everything all the time, Lance... sometimes we just have to wait."

"I-I know..." Lance shut his mouth after, trying to relax.

Hunk pulled Lance closer to him, trying to be comforting

"I’m gonna sleep..."

"Okay," he said softly. "I'll wake you when we get there."

"Alright..."

Lance let himself drift into an uneasy sleep against hunk, full of nervous thoughts but no movement.

Hunk looked down at Lance and then closed his eyes himself.

 

Hunk woke up Lance when they pulled into the parking lot of their building. There was a police officer waiting for them, who spoke to Allura about what happened once they made it through the reporters gathered in front of the building. The police still hadn't tracked down the intruders, but they had license plate numbers, so they hadn’t gotten nowhere. Not long after the briefing, Katie left in her car to meet up with Matt, who was at the hospital with Shiro waiting for him to come out of surgery.

Lance was bleary-eyed as they walked down to the basement. He rubbed at his face, trying to wake himself up more.

"You want me to get you some coffee?" Hunk asked. When they opened the door a little red streak ran back to Keith's room.

"y-yes please--" Lance muttered before walking after the streak.

"Red...?" he called softly after her. She meowed from under the bed. "Red... it’s me..." he said, crouching down outside of the doorway. It was open but taped off as a crime scene.

The metal table had been overturned, and a dent was in the wall next to the door where it had been thrown. The chairs were also on their sides and pushed into the wall, one broken. Police had taped around spatters of blood on the floor and the wall, and three flat human teeth. It had been a serious fight.

Red slunk out from under the bed and over to Lance as he looked in at the damage. Lance reached out cautiously to the cat to let her do what she wanted to do.

“I’m sorry...” he whispered. She chirped and rubbed against his arms He carefully scooped her into his arms and slowly stroked her fur. “At least you’re alright...” he murmured. Slowly, with Red in his arms, Lance stood up. He left the room and began to retreat to his office. Red stayed still and purred. About a minute later Hunk came in with Lance's coffee.

"How is everything?" He asked, putting his hand out for red, who rubbed her head against it.

"Completely nerve-wracking... reds okay, though..." Lance muttered, taking the coffee and drinking some.

Hunk nodded.

"We'll get your boy back, don't you worry," hunk cooed at Red, scratching her forehead. She meowed.

Lance smiled slightly.

"I... I don’t know if I wanna stay here to work or go home..." he sighed.

"You should go home, take Red with you, set her up for now. You won't be far away if they find something."

Lance took a moment to consider the options. After a bit, he shut his computer down and stood.

"Can you grab reds stuff for me and help me take it out to the car?" he asked hunk.

"Yeah. Do you want to take the tree, too?"

"We can, yeah... just in case blue isn’t too keen on sharing."

"True," Hunk laughed

Lance finished gathering his things and moved his hand out for Red again.

Red rubbed against it. Hunk took the tree up to Lance’s car

"Alright, red... let’s go." Lance carefully picked the cat up and began to walk to the elevator.

She meowed but didn't fuss.

Lance was careful to pet Red the best he could while taking her up and out to the car. He didn’t say goodbye to anyone like he normally did.

Hunk sighed, seeing Lance drive away through the window.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You thought it was fun and games and healing from the Past? No. Fools. This is only the beginning
> 
> Thank you always for reading! <3


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is filler because in the RP we jumped straight to getting Keith back, which is why I'm the only author of this chapter.

The following days were a hell for everyone. No one could keep stray reporters away from the outside of the property while the place was cleaned up. Hunk managed to get Lance to do something other than worry around the office waiting for updates on the investigation the second day after the kidnapping. After lunch, they piled into Matt’s car and went to the hospital to visit Shiro.

“So… what are the details, exactly?” Hunk asked during the drive over.

“Well,” Matt sighed, “the bullet punctured his stomach, so the inner lining of his abdomen is recovering from that. They fixed the hole, drained everything that got out, and found the bullet in the initial surgery, it’s really just bedrest and watching to make sure he doesn’t get sepsis or something. He is on antibiotics already, so…”

“So he should be fine,” Lance finished anxiously. 

“Yeah. Everyone else who was still in last night should be out and on leave after final checkups later today.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” Hunk said.

“Yeah.”

“Do you think he’ll be awake?”

“Yeah, he is, I checked with his mom.”

“Oh, good.”

“Is she there now?” Lance asked.

“She just left ICU.”

“Do they know when he’ll be let out?” Hunk asked.

“No. Not until he’s up and walking I would think, and I don’t know how long that will take.”

“As long as he gets bedrest he should be fine,” Lance stated. Matt hummed in agreement.

“How are your worms doing?” Hunk asked, wanting a change of subject.

“Oh, well, they’re fine. They’re going into the horizon below the topsoil I have set up, which is… interesting.”

“What’s that mean then?”

“Heck if I know dude, but once all of this is taken care of I’ll figure it out.”

“That’s the spirit,” Lance laughed.

 

Shiro was awake when they got to his room,

“Hey, you brought extras,” Shiro said, grinning at Matt as they walked in.

“Yeah, we’re waiting for approval for some specifics to get a room like this set up for when we get Keith back,” Hunk explained, “just in case, so we’re on a bit of a stall back there.” Matt pulled three chairs up to the side of the hospital bed so the three of them could sit down.

“Has there been any progress?”

“They think they know what building he’s in, from tracking the cars and everything,” Lance said, anxiously running a hand through his hair. “They have to figure out how to get him though, and everything. We don’t know if any of us will be involved in that, though.”

“Well, we should be,” Shiro sighed. “It’ll only cause him more panic to be essentially kidnapped again, we can’t just assume he’ll realize it’s us rescuing him.”

“None of us are really qualified to go into the building though,” Hunk noted. Shiro nodded.

“However they do it, I’m sure they’ll have him back before I get out of here,” Shiro laughed, trying to lighten the mood but wincing as his sore abdomen protested moving so much. “I won’t be able to do any kind of gym with him for a couple of months, probably.”

“He’ll understand,” Lance stated. “We should be getting a teacher for him soon, so I’m sure he won’t get too bored.”

“Did the interviews go well, then?”

“Yeah. We’re thinking Ms. Cuevas. Keith liked her, and she seemed very patient when they were doing grammar.”

“Keith said he felt like the other one got frustrated with him after a bit, so he’s a no-go,” Hunk added.

“Well, it’s good that he was okay with meeting them, then.”

“Yeah.”

“How are you doing?” Matt asked.

“Just peachy how have you been?”

“Shiro, come on,” Matt sighed. Shiro had to suppress his laughter.

“I’ll be on solid food soon, so that’s a progress.”

“That  _ is  _ a progress,” Matt chuckled. “Do you want any other books to read?”

“No, no I’m fine, my mom’s given me enough reading material for a couple weeks,” he chuckled, wincing. 

“Jeez.” There was, indeed, a pile of books on the side table.

“Shouldn’t it be on the other side of the bed?” Lance asked.

“Oh, yeah,” Shiro shook his head. “My mom was sitting on that side earlier. She forgets about the arm thing sometimes when she can’t see it.” Lance wheeled the side table over so Shiro would be able to reach it again. “Thanks.”

“So where’s your prosthetic then?” Hunk asked.

“Home, there’s no real reason to wear it here, so.”

“True.” Shiro yawned, and the three looked at one another.

“We should go and let you rest,” Matt said, getting up from his chair. 

“Okay, good luck with everything, thanks for stopping by.”

“No problem,” Lance grinned. They said their goodbyes and got back in the car.

“Any news?” Lance asked Hunk as he turned his phone back on, as Hunk’s had booted up first. 

“Yeah…” he replied, opening a text from Allura. He stared at it, surprised.

“What is it?”   
“They’re raiding tomorrow, Pidge has been allowed to work with their hacker for files on what they may have done to Keith, if anything, but no one else can go and she won’t be leaving the van.”

“So we’re getting him back tomorrow?” Lance asked in disbelief.

“If all goes well, yeah.” He put an arm around Lance’s shoulder. “He’s gonna be okay.”

“He’s gonna be okay,” Lance repeated, staring into his lap. He would have to convince himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you guys are ready for the next one... B)
> 
> [Side note: I'm on tumblr as smallest-turtle, but I don't post about my writing much. Would it interest people if I made a side blog centered around my writing/art and independent works along with fics? I've been thinking about it for a couple days but I was wondering if people would be interested. Thank you guys for reading as always <3]


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Remember That I Love You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :3c

It wasn't until three days after the attack that the police had narrowed down the leads of where Keith was being held. They were sending a SWAT team to infiltrate and get Keith out, while Katie tagged along to help get any files they may have on what was done to Keith in the time he had been gone so they would have an idea on what they were dealing with.

The building was a warehouse that the former head of the company owned; the only one the car that got away could have gone to.

Soon, Katie and the other tech specialist had taken down the building's security, and the SWAT team went in.

About fifteen minutes later they had the files on what had happened, and ten minutes after that they were speeding away with an unnervingly unconscious Keith while the rest of the law enforcement’s team stayed behind to arrest the people involved in the kidnapping.

"We have him!" Katie said, calling the office. "Hunk better get the machines in that room turned on, though."

Lance’s stomach dropped.

“What did they do?” he demanded.

“We don’t know yet, but he’s not conscious… he has a pulse and he’s breathing,” she assured quickly. “They probably… operated on him, again…”

“Son of a bitch,” Lance muttered. Hunk stood up, putting a hand on his friend’s shoulder.

“I’ll get things ready for him, he’ll be fine, okay? He’s lived through their shit before. It’s over now.”

“Yeah… yeah,” Lance nodded, wiping his eyes. Hunk left, giving Lance’s shoulder a final pat.

“We’re going to back everything up, I’ll print them when we get to you,” Katie informed.

“Sounds like a plan.”

Lance waited nervously in the front of the building with Allura and Coran for the others to arrive. When they did, he didn’t know what to do. Keith was carried out unconscious by the SWAT person who went with them, into the building.

"I-I--" Lances heart shattered when he saw Keith, the realization of the situation keeping him from moving to follow the swat member.

"I haven't read the files on what happened yet, but I have them," Katie told him as she jogged in.

"I-I—he’s-he’s alive, right?" he asked. He was shaking slightly.

"Yeah, yeah, he's breathing fine, he's going to be fine, Lance."

"Wh-what all happened to him?"

" _ I haven't read the files yet. _ "

“Right, right…” Lance took a deep, hitched breath and forced himself to go down to the room they had set up. He couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened if they hadn’t. Hunk was hooking Keith up to the heart monitor when he entered the room.

"Could you set up the plasma IV? His blood pressure is low, I don’t want to take chances." Hunk told Lance. Lance quickly did as he was told without a response, hardly even a nod. He winced putting the needle into Keith’s -limp- arm, knowing how much he’d hate it. Katie came in with the report. 

"You should read this." Lance jumped at the chance. 

 

The report stated that they had taken out one of Keith’s kidneys and his spleen at the same time to see what his recovery would be like, how his body would act while growing back both. As cruel cautionary measures they had taken out his front teeth, and as punishment for speaking repeatedly they had cut out his tongue.

 

"Dammit..." he whispered, slowly starting to tear up.

"W-what did they do?" Hunk asked nervously, looking between Lance and Katie

"H-his spleen... and kidney... were taken out at th-the same time... to record recovery time... his front teeth are gone... a-and they cut out his tongue..." Lance murmured, his voice breaking and wavering between talking and whispering tones. Katie shifted uncomfortably, having skimmed the file on her way down.

"What the  _ fuck _ " Hunk said softly.

"P-please... check the extent of the physical damage... ch-check-check his mouth."

Hunk winced and got a pair of gloves from a cabinet before gently opening Keith's mouth. His gums were red and irritated from having his teeth pulled out, but Hunk could see the small white points of new teeth deep past the inflammation. His tongue was... a stub. Hunk resisted a shudder.

"His gums are inflamed but... the, the cut of the tongue looks clean..."

“O-okay...” Lance sniffed. He was trembling harder now.

Hunk took off the gloves and went over to hug Lance. "It's okay, we have him now, he'll recover."

"They'll be behind bars soon, too," Katie added. "Especially with  _ this. _ " The malice in her voice was palpable.

“I-I- I don’t know what to  _ do _ ...”

"Just... Keep an eye on him…” Hunk advised. “See if he wakes up. I'll have one of the guys upstairs do a blood test for any drugs in his system if it's fast and find out if maybe he's just sedated, okay?" He patted Lance on the shoulder.

“O-okay... alright...” Lance took a shaky breath and hung his head.

"I'll... Get one of the comfy chairs," Katie said, leaving with Hunk.

“Thanks... guys...”

Lance rubbed his teary eyes and sighed, looking over the report again. The only sound was the heart monitor.

"F-fuck... I’m sorry, Keith..." he whimpered quietly, unable to help as he started to cry.

Hunk came back from upstairs with Katie, holding a mug of tea. Katie put the chair down behind Lance. Hunk put the mug on the wheelie table when he saw that Lance was crying so he could pull him into another hug.

"We can stay here with him if you need to go home," he said quietly.

"I-I don’t know what I wanna do..." Lance cried softly, hiding his face in Hunks shoulder. "I-It fuckin hurts, but I don’t wanna l-leave him..."

"Maybe just stay in your office, you'll still be right here."

"M-maybe... I-I don’t-- I don’t know..." Lance tried to collect himself the best he could.

Hunk offered him the mug of tea. Lance took it with both hands and took a slow sip. It was the berry mix he had hidden for himself in the staffroom. How Hunk knew where the box was, he had no idea, but there was no better time for his favorite tea than this, so he was grateful. Katie piped up suddenly. 

“I’m sure we could scrounge around the building for things to set a bed up in here out of.”

“But the cats…”

“I can stop by to feed them tonight and bring them here tomorrow morning,” Hunk assured. “Then you can just… camp out here, I guess,” Katie shrugged. Lance laughed half heartedly.

“I guess I should just move in here, huh?”

“I’d ask about rent first,” Katie noted jokingly, making the others chuckle.

“That would be really convenient, though…” Hunk mused.

“I could take it up with Allura,” Katie said, “plans for the new building and all.”

“That’d be neat, yeah,” Lance told her, wiping his eyes with his sleeve.

“Well, you stay with him down here, we can try and find you a bed.”

“Okay,” Lance said, nodding. “Thanks you guys…”

“No problem,” told him. Hunk gave him another tight hug before the two of them left.

Lance sat alone in the room with his head in his hands, listening to the heart monitor and watching Keith breathe.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So basically, the RP was in a chat server, and we didn't realize that the message history limit was for the whole chat group, not just the section of it we did the rp in, and we didn't paste the last part of it into the doc we're using. Essentially, it cut off a third of the way into this chapter so now I'm just rewriting everything myself, so if Lance is a lil different I'm writing him now so. Yeet. This also means updates will probably happen slower, but I was going to continue this longer than our RP anyway so. lol.
> 
> also Two Whole People commented that they were interested in a sideblog for my writing so I Did It. It's all reblogs from my main that were posts related to shit I'm writing so far, it's tagged. I'm still organizing but everything is acronymed in tags and there's some Character Talk about kids of my own anyway I hope you guys like it. I can finally write my Haggar shitpost that only pertains to this :3  
> smallest-letters.tumblr.com


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> you would not believe the tab I opened for this chapter

The blood test came back negative for sedatives in Keith’s bloodstream several hours later. After a panicked recalibration of a machine they had previously shut down that served as a CT scanner amongst other things, he turned up negative for any brain trauma as well. 

 

“It doesn’t make any  _ sense _ ,” Lance yelled, pacing up and down the room, “he’s showing all the signs of a coma and brain trauma is like the one thing he  _ doesn’t have _ !”

Hunk had already stopped trying to calm him down or get him to sit, and the others steered clear of his path.

“Is it possible he is in a coma without brain damage?” Coran suggested.

“Not-- No! The body doesn’t do that!”

“The body doesn’t Grow Back entire Organs either, Lance!” Katie argued. 

“Well what are you proposing then?!”

“Perhaps-” Hunk interjected calmly “-it is possible that his brain has shut down all higher functions to conserve and redirect energy towards regenerating cells.” Lance fell silent, thinking. “We would need to do a PET scan to confirm that, though,” Hunk continued, “and despite all the weird shit this basement has, the components for something like that being down here is probably one of the least likely.”

“Well,” Coran started, “they did seem to do some studies on his learning ability when he was very young… It may be worth looking into early expense records just in case.” Hunk looked at Katie, who groaned.

“I thought I was  _ done _ digging through files…”

“Nope,” Hunk replied, putting a hand on her shoulder and steering her through the doorway, close behind. Lance and Coran heard her dramatic cry of mock anguish bounce down the hallway.

Lance slowly stopped pacing to watch Keith. The only thing that had changed was the contents of the IV bag, since Keith couldn’t eat or drink. Lance wondered what Keith would think if he woke up in a bed like that, with a tube in his arm and hooked up to a monitor. He wouldn’t know where he was, he wouldn’t know he was safe if he woke up alone. He’d probably only hurt himself more trying to get away. He had to make sure he was there when Keith- Coran derailed Lance’s train of thought by putting an arm around his shoulder and starting to speak.

“Don’t let this worry eat you up, my boy; everything we have about him only points to his recovery after all.”

“Y-yeah, but… aren’t you worried about after that? How will he be when he wakes up?” His voice cracked. Coran gave him a sad smile. It made him look older.

“We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, and as of now,” he looked towards Keith, “I don’t think we can even see it yet.”

 

Lance was woken up by a cat, Red he later realized, yowling and walking sharply across his back. He picked up his head and rubbed his eyes. He had fallen asleep at the side table next to Keith while looking for more evidence to file for the case. He straightened up and stretched, making Red jump down to the table, still meowing insistently.

“What is it girl?” he asked sleepily, “Is the food bowl empty?” She made another loud noise and walked onto the bed, sitting directly on top of Keith’s chest and sniffing at Blue, who was laying next to the boy’s head. Red loafed down atop her charge, causing a pained huff that Lance picked up on. He stood quickly, jostling the table into the wall with a thud.

He saw Keith flinch. 

“K-Keith?” Lance asked hesitantly, a nagging disbelief in the back of his mind. Keith’s breath hitched and his eyes squeezed shut. “Keith i-it’s okay, you’re safe it’s okay, you’re back with us,” he soothed, crouching next to the bed while quickly texting some nonsense letters to Hunk to alert him. “A-are you in pain?” Lance asked. It was a dumb question, considering, but they hadn’t wanted to put him on anything when they couldn’t monitor him at all. Keith gave a slight nod.

“Okay, I’m going to get something to help it not hurt, okay? It’ll take a few minutes.” He stood up and took Red off of Keith’s stomach and put her to the side. Hunk came in while Lance was reading the dilution instructions for the pain medication.

“Is he…?” he asked, seeing how Keith still looked asleep.

“He was just responsive a minute ago, he’s in pain so I’m gonna push this once it’s ready.”

“Okay,” Hunk nodded. He walked over to the bed and moved the chair closer. “You awake buddy?” he asked softly. Keith gave a small nod, open his eyes slightly. “You’re gonna feel better soon, don’t worry.”

Coran came in quietly. “How’s he doing?”

“He’s awake and in pain which I’m taking care of,” Lance informed, getting the air out of the syringe. Coran went to the bedside next to Hunk.

“Has he said anything?”

“No.”

“Did you wake up because you were in pain?” Coran asked. Keith gave another slight nod.

“Don’t worry,” Lance said, walking over. “This will help and you’ll be able to go back to sleep, okay?” He began to push the medication through the IV. Keith seemed to finally process that it was there. Hunk saw his eyes widen.

“It’s okay, it’s safe,” he said softly, not wanting Keith to panic. “You can’t eat right now, and what’s in that makes up for it so you stay healthy.”

“What I’m putting in now will stop you from being in so much pain,” Lance explained slowly. “Is that okay?”

Keith nodded again. Lance smiled at him when the push was done and put the syringe into the medical waste bin.

“Is there anything else making you uncomfortable? Do you want another pillow or blanket?”

Keith shook his head.

“Are you having any trouble speaking? Have you tried?” Coran asked. It took a moment, but Keith nodded again, looking upset. Coran put on a smile so he wouldn’t get scared. “That’s okay, it’s nothing permanent. Even if it takes a while for you to be able to talk again.”

“Do you want to sleep?” Lance asked. Keith nodded again. “Okay,” he smiled, moving Keith’s hair out of his eyes. “We’ll be quiet so you can get some rest.”

 

“Seventh day is the charm I suppose!” Coran mused when they were out in the hallway.

“Yeah,” Lance breathed. He almost couldn’t believe Keith had finally woken up.

“Why do you think he can’t talk?” Hunk asked Coran.

“I suspect it’s a form of selective mutism. He wasn’t very vocal beforehand, but the trauma of… having his tongue cut off as punishment probably caused it. I’m sure that being here where he feels safe will help reverse it.”

“Okay,” Lance sighed.  They were quiet for a moment.

“Hey,” Hunk said, elbowing Lance’s arm.

“Yeah?”

“You should actually go to bed after we tell everyone,” Hunk told him. “Falling asleep at the table doesn’t count as rest. I thought you were going to sleep through lunch.”

“What time is it?” Lance asked, startled.

“Nine-thirty. Traffic was hell so I was late with breakfast.”

“Oh.”

“We’re all here, you should be fine for a nap.” Coran smiled.

“I feel pressured.”

“Peer pressure: for sleep only,” Hunk declared.

“You have no choice in this, young man,” Coran said softly.

“Oh…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please comment! <3

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, and Please Comment!


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